Shoo Shoo Baby

Well I haven't had too bad a week on the weight loss front. Still not quite 'in the zone' but certainly making progress towards it. A loss of 1kg this week - which I'm pretty happy with. Especially since my exercise has been crap - seem to be so tired at the moment and I had wine over the weekend. In my favour though I have tracked every day and even with the wine have remained within my points allowance. So just need to crank it up a bit this week.

Have now been back at work for 3 days and finding it really had to get back in the groove but hopefully this week I'll get my A into G! You may remember me posting about my hairdresser a few months back. Well she opted to sell the business as she wasn't able to devote the necessary time to it between looking after her family and embarking on yet another round of chemo. The good news is that she's now just over half way through this round of treatment and has converted a room in her house so that she can look after a few clients in the weeks that she's feeling well. I did like the girl who took over from R (she was trained by her) but she has a young baby and only works one Saturday a month which makes it tricky to keep my hair looking decent. I'm in dire need of a cut and colour since I came back from holiday but can't get in to J till early October. I didn't know that R was going to work from home until yesterday when I bumped into another stylist from the salon and she told me. So I sms'd R today and asked if she'd like another custy - she rang me back and said "Hell yes". Turns out she didn't want to do the wrong thing by the new salon owner although the deal was that she didn't set up within a 2km radius of the salon in the next 12 months. But she lives about 7km from the salon so isn't breaking the agreement but she's such a nice person she didn't want to phone her old clients. Anyway I'm off to see her tomorrow night after work - yippee! And I don't feel bad as I've been with R for the last 8 years so figure she's the one I need to support.

Many of you commented on my shoes in the last post so I decided to do an inventory of my shoes and give you a slide show! I had lots of fun playing with different slide show applications. I originally tried to do this with Photobucket as I loved the way Phil showed her pictures in her last post. But it's just so bloody slow. Then I played with Smilebox - fun and quite good but unless you pay for it you don't get full screen and you get lots of ads. Then of course there was good old Picasa but it was just a tad boring. Then I found Picturetrail which seems fairly idiot proof and quite quick and easy to use. Anyway the most pictures any presentation would take was 40 and since I had pictures of 48 pairs of shoes I had to do two shows. And you know what - that doesn't include my walking/running shoes, a duplicate pair of flatties - same style different colour as a pair already included, a pair of 'granny' sandals, and another pair which were hiding under the bed! So do I qualify as an 'Imelda'? Oh and I'm sorry you Size Niners - I'm usually an 8, or occasionally a 7.5!!!!

Have a great week my lovelies
Love
Z xx

STOP PRESS

A photo of the new 'do' - the blondest I have ever been and I love it.

I'm off to have more fun!!

Whisper, whisper.....

Shhhhhh ....don't tell anyone..... I gained 3.2kgs in the five weeks I was away. That is the difference in my weight between the day I left and the day after I came back - BUT as well as that the week before I left was pretty ordinary in my eating habits - farewell drinks and meals out plus it turned out that my old friend TOM decided to pop in and say g'day during the first week of our trip. Don't see the bugger for months then he turns up two in a row!!! Anyway the upshot of all that is that the reality is that I'm almost 5kgs heavier than the lightest I was earlier this year. So.... a bit of work to do. However I'm hopeful that I can drop more than half of that fairly quickly - that is in the next couple of weeks. I'm back on plan since yesterday, tracking, counting points, drinking lots of water and no alcohol so just need to get the exercise cranked up again and I should be right.

Another piece of exciting news - for me anyway - is that while I was away a new gym opened in our little town. I've already been on the phone and got prices and details and it sounds pretty good. Just need to clear up all my holiday bills then I'm planning on joining. In the meantime I'll get back to walking with Zanna again and work up to running a couple of mornings a week.

Beck posted a link to this site Polyvore and said it was a lot of fun - so I had a play and she was right - thanks Beck!

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And now just a few tail end photos from the holiday - as much for my sake as yours!! They're not in order just as I saw them and thought you might like to share. The link to them all is in my last post and I've also put a link on the sidebar under Holiday Photos.



Bugs Bunny on the Hollywood Walk of Fame



A little quant shopping street on Venice Beach. We walked from Santa Monica to Venice beach one day - some incredibly 'different' people to be found at the markets along Venice Beach!


I made it to the red carpet at Universal Studios in Hollywood!!



Having a lunch time beer in Mexico City

Our hotel in Mexico City was superb - the only 5 star privately owned hotel in the city. This was the bathroom - rather swish!

Outside Versace on Rodeo Drive.

Overlooking Los Angeles and Hollywood. The pale grey area you can see just above the top rail, just behind my handbag is the Hollywood Bowl

That's me on the right meandering along Via Rodeo, just off Rodeo Drive.

And one last one - I didn't do much shopping on this trip - too busy seeing things. But I did manage a couple or purchases in Santa Monica. Sears were having their end of summer sale. So I got two pairs of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, a couple of tops and two pairs of shoes. These ones were a real bargain - cost me the princely sum of $US 3.57!!!!

Have a great week everyone

Love Z xx

The Tart has Landed

Hi Folks, Back home in my own little house tonight. Feeling very tired and a bit jet lagged but trying to keep going till a normal bedtime so I can get my clock back on schedule. I don't start back to work till Wednesday so that gives me a couple of days to do some food shopping, do some washing and pick up Zanna from the kennels. Havne't been on the scales yet - tomorrow morning will be soon enough - then I'll probably be too ashamed to tell you the damage! But I do have the right mindset to get back on the right track immediately - am in fact savouring a nice little Pinot Grigio which my friend H left in the fridge for me as a belated birthday present - as well as a vase of flowers, a box of Lindor chocs - and yes I've had quite a few this afternoon - after all they'll be out of bounds tomorrow! And yes don't I have some delightful friends Below I've posted the story of our Cuban experience but as I say it's a long one and may not be of interest to all of you but if different countries and cultures interest you then have a read. I've posted all our photos on Picasa and if you click the link then you'll see all the albums - pretty well divided into locations. To view any album just double click on the photo and then select slideshow from the options along the top. The default is, I think 4 seconds for each slide but you can shorten it along the bottom of the screen to make it go a bit quicker. All right, this tired little vegemite needs to call it a night. Will be back during the week to confess my sins! Love Z xx

Our Cuban Experience

WARNING - EXCESSIVELY LONG POST Cuba – Country of Contrasts I’m sitting in the airport at Havana – on our way to Mexico City after our four nights in Cuba. I’m going to try and describe our impressions of Havana and surrounds. But first I think I could just say that at this stage Cuba for us will be the jewel in the crown of this trip. While it may not be everyone’s idea of a perfect holiday destination – definitely not for resort lovers – we’ve found it to be a fascinating place – with so much history, beautiful architecture and warm friendly people who love music and dance. I’m just going to list some of the impressions and facts that we discovered while here – I’ll try to retain some semblance of order but it may get a bit muddled as things occur to me. This will be a fairly generalized account as I’ve promised to tell quite a number of people about our Cuban experience and I’m going to make this one account serve you all! Before leaving Australia we had obtained our Tourist Visa Cards from the Cuban Embassy in Australia, which cost $88 each plus $30 courier fees and needed our passports sent, passport photos and an application form completed. These are loose visas slipped inside your passport which avoids the need to have your passport stamped. Apparently several countries may refuse you entry at a later date if you have a Cuban stamp in your passport. Anyway somewhere on our earlier travels I managed to lose my tourist visa. I thought this was going to be a major drama but in fact it wasn’t. On arrival at Cancun airport, prior to checking in for our flight to Cancun, I went to the Air Mexicana desk, who are agents for Cuba in providing the tourist card. I showed my passport and handed over 170 pesos (about $22 AUS) and was given the tourist card. So that was a big relief but makes me think it would be easier and cheaper to do it that way from the start. The currency situation is a bit different in Cuba and takes time to get your head around. First of all they don’t accept US dollars or US based credit cards (eg American Express). They will happily accept Visa or Mastercard but charge over 11% on each transaction. We had been advised – and found it true – that the best thing to do is take your money in Euros and have it changed as you need it. It’s a bit of a juggle trying to work out how much to take and then how much to change as this currency isn’t accepted anywhere else so you can change back at the airport but must have your receipts from when you bought it. Then there are two levels of Cuban currency – the Cuban peso used by Cubans which tourists can’t use and the CUC which is the Cuban Convertible peso – this is the one used by all tourists. But if for some reason you end up with a Cuban peso and try to use it in a purchase it won’t be accepted. Not that this is likely to happen – although sometimes a wily Cuban (usually very poor) will try to sell you some in return for CUCs – fine if you want just a souvenir but no good to spend. First impressions of Cuba – on arrival at the immigration check it’s quite intimidating – very serious faces on the staff – abruptly told only one into the booth at a time then when you’ve been okayed they press a buzzer and you walk through this narrow door at the end of the booth into the arrival area where you are immediately x-rayed. Then you use the toilets which have no driers or paper to dry your hands unless you tip the attendant to get some toilet paper for this! When driving from the airport into Havana you think first of all that there are lots of slums. But when you look more closely you see that that people are clean and so are the streets. It’s actually neglect you see – there has been no money for a long time to provide for the maintenance and upkeep of buildings. Then you discover that the people of Cuba are well educated – education is compulsory and free for everyone. Some interesting facts – 400 million women in the world are illiterate but none of them are Cuban. Adult literacy rate is 96.7% which is higher than either the UK or the US. They are renowned for their medical welfare which is free – they have the highest rate of doctors per capita in the world. Life expectancy is 75 years – and the infant mortality rate is the same as New Zealand. The country itself is the same size as North Island, New Zealand with a population of 10 million, 2 million in Havana. There are a total of 289 beaches in Cuba. The countryside is lush and green. The fresh fruit we had each day at breakfast was always really sweet and juicy – mangoes, pineapples, guava, figs, oranges, grapefruit, melon – honeydew and water. Because of the years of austerity and the embargo on any trade with the US, transportation is a real issue. They have had to make cars last well beyond their expected lifetime – so you see lots of 1950 (or maybe even earlier) cars around – Studebakers, Chev Impalas, Cadillacs, and most of them are literally held together with string! It’s commonplace to see cars broken down at the side of the road. And of course there are no spare parts available so they just improvise. Horse and carts or buggies are also common as are motor bikes with side cars. Buses are always absolutely packed and they even have these articulated buses pulled by a truck which carry around 300 passengers – most of them standing jampacked in the aisles. These buses are called camels because they are on two different levels with a hollow in the middle to enable people to get on and off. We stayed at the Hotel Nacional which is classified as a national monument in Havana. It was like a majestic grand old lady – with lots of dark wood, chandeliers, grandfather clocks and a courtyard bar area – very similar to Raffles in Singapore. The rooms are far from luxurious but nonetheless stately. The service is sort of quaint and old worldly. The staff are very polite and formally dressed a la 1940s (white shirts and bow ties or tuxes) but remain quite distant. There is a relaxed attitude to service in that they don’t fall over themselves to help and serve (whereas in Cancun and the US they would be falling over themselves to help and be chatty with it). So we kind of felt especially at the Hotel Nacional, as though we were stepping back in time. However tipping is now the norm here – usually around 10 per cent. Now with regard to the Hotel Nacional – it’s a magnificent building sitting up on the hill overlooking the Malecon and the Gulf of Mexico so has great views. The hotel has a number of bars and restaurants some of them open 24 hours. But the surrounding streets aren’t that attractive. A taxi to Old Havana costs anywhere between 5 to 10 pesos depending on whether you catch it from the front of the hotel or walk 100metres onto the main street so it’s quite easy to get around. Old Havana is beautiful with wonderful old buildings, fantastic examples of architecture, flea markets, secondhand book markets. Lots of little restaurants and bars most of them with live music. What is sad is that so many of the young women have taken up the ‘oldest profession in the world’. We saw them often in the hotel in the company of travelling business men . However at least they seem to get treated to dinner and drinks. We met a young Irish guy and went out in Old Havana with him one night. He was telling us that the night before he had gone out on the town on his own and been pestered constantly by both the ‘ladies’ and their pimps. He really enjoyed his night with us as no-one approached him – guess it looked like he was out with his Mum and Dad! We took two tours while we were there – both through Cubatur (although I think Havanatur are probably just as good). First up we did a city tour which lasted about four and a half hours. In our time we’ve done quite a number of city tours as we always think it’s a good way to get a feel for a city. This was probably one of the best we’ve ever been on. There were about a dozen of us on a minibus with a multilingual tour guide whose manner was so relaxed – none of this following the guide waving a brochure in the air. We had frequent photo stops then when we got to Old Havana we had a relaxed walking tour through the area with stops for coffee, purchase of cigars or rum if you wanted, a mojito at Hotel Ambos Mundo (where Hemmingway lived in Room 511 for a considerable time), visit to a pharmacy which was about 100 years old and about half an hour wandering through a flea market before returning to our hotel. Think we paid about $19 US each for this. Well worth it. That night we went back into Old Havana with a young Irishman we had met on the tour and enjoyed a few mojitos at El Floridita then wandered around the area and found a little restaurant to have something to eat and finally ended up at a little bar drinking more mojitos and meeting some Cuban locals – delightful warm friendly people. We got a cab home – that was an interesting experience – it was one of the cheaper ones – a very old Lada with no airconditioning but when the windows were open the fumes nearly choked us. But still we got home in one piece and enjoyed the experience. The following day we went on the Hemmingway Tour. I hadn’t known that Ernest Hemmingway (author of For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Call to Arms, The Old Man and the Sea,– Nobel and Pullitzer prize winner) had very strong connections with Cuba. For about 20 years he lived most of the time in Cuba and was a real character but also a patron and benefactor to the Cuban people. He live initially in the Hotel Ambos Mundos in Old Havana and frequented the bars there – El Floridita and La Bodeguita in particular. Later he bought a house on a few acres a bit out of Havana – this property and all it’s contents, he bequeathed to the people of Cuba and it’s now a museum. Anyway without giving you Hemmingway’s complete biography, I’ll just say that it was a very interesting tour and our tour guide was absolutely passionate about Hemmingway and had a wealth of knowledge on the subject. Our other outing was to the Tropicana nightclub. This club has been around since the 1930s and going to the show was like going to a show back then – an absolute extravaganza! The venue is an open air amphitheatre with huge trees overhanging. It’s beautifully lit, with a fabulous main stage as well as a huge waterfall cum stage area. The seating is tiered in tables and you can have a meal there before the show starts at 10pm. We opted for that – had a nice simple meal then watched the show. Only one word can describe it – spectacular!! We’ve been to Le Lido in the Champs Elysee in Paris, and also some of the big shows on the Gold Coast and this show outclassed any of them. A couple of other interesting facts we picked up : • President Kennedy was the president who created the US embargo on Cuba. Just prior to implementing this embargo he imported a large number of his favourite Cuban cigars. • 34 Cuban musical acts were nominated for the Latin Grammys in 2002/2003 but the US granted no visas for any of them to attend. • The US Government spend $26M annually to beam radio and TV anti Cuban government propaganda into Cuban homes. Sometimes the radio messages get through but TV never makes it past the Cuban jamming technology. I stress that what I’ve written here is only our view of Cuba – I’m sure there are many other aspects that we aren’t aware of. But we found it a lovely country to visit which has a rich vibrant history and warm interesting people. The complex question of the situation between US and Cuba is one which we’ve discussed several times. It appears to us that while Cuba has it’s problems it also has many, many successes and it doesn’t seem to us that US has the right to come in and initiate a wholesale takeover. For us now it will be so interesting to see what the future brings for Cuba.

Bittersweet!

Hi Guys,

Well I'm sitting here in the Qantas club in LA airport - have had a few wines and generally feeling quite mellow but with the old mixed feelings - on the one hand it's so sad to be at the end of our holiday but also excited at the prospect of seeing No 1 son and DIL and grandsons at the airport on Sunday and sleeping in or own bed and not living out of a suitcase. It's been yet another "holiday of a life time' - Bloss and I have managed to have a few of these! Santa Monica has been a delightful surprise and we've really enjoyed our few days here. I've got almost all my photos on Picasa web albums now so will post a link to them once I get home and if you're interested you can have a browse at your leisure.

Feeling really porky! - heaven only knows what the scales will say on Monday but I am quite focussed on getting back on the healthy eating lifestyle straight away, when I get home - but meantime am just having a little smoked salmon panini and a drink or two!!

Look forward to catching up with you all properly over the next week or two.

Love to everyone

Z xx
ps these photos are from Mexico City - found this neat varities of seats along the street and had to sit on them all.

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A Catch up from Mexico City

Hi Everybody,

Well time is slipping away. Here we are in Mexico City - got here yesterday and leave again on Tuesday, on to Los Angeles for three nights then it's back to dear old Oz.

Been pretty full on since I last posted. Our last night in Cancun was huge - met a delightful couple from Florida and the four of us just 'clicked' and ended up having a wild night drinking cocktails and several sets of 'orgasms' - luckily as I said I think the alcohol was diluted or we'd have been sick puppies getting on the flight the next day! Anyway it was one of those meetings where you just have the feeling that one day we'll all get together again - I do hope so.

Then it was on to Cuba - well we're pretty sure it will be the 'jewel in the crown' of this trip. I'm actually putting together a long story on our Cuban experience. I'll post it once I'm home for those of you who are interested - but it will be a very long post. I've put it together for various people so it's fairly general - eg our travel agent is keen to know how we found it since we're his first customers ever to go there (that's in probably 20 years!), also some friends and family wanted to knw all the ins and outs.

I've posted a few photos for you all but what I plan to do once we're home is to upload all the photos into albums in Picasa then post a link here and if you want you can go in and browse to your hearts content.



Papa Bear with Ryde



Papa Bear and Grannie Annie with the Rio Grande river in the background



Reid, Christy and the two boys on the train outing From Sante Fe to Lamy




Papa Bear and Cord

Our unit in Cancun was upstairs here - you can just see one of the room maids coming out of the door



They had these beds with curtains all around the pool at Cancun and also in the lobby bar - I'm just trying one out!



Bloss and I at La Isla shopping centre in Cancun



Reclining in the bed in the Lobby Bar with a cocktail





Bloss wanted all you blogger people to see me hard at work at the side of the pool with my laptop!



Here I am at Havana airport with all our bags



This is the view from our room in the Hotel Nacional in Havana



Bloss and I in a square in Old Havana

Whilst doing the above tour we met a delightful young Irishman who we went out on the town with later that night. These are genuine mojitos made in the El Floridita bar, frequented by the writer Ernest Hemmingway. He had a very strong connection with Cuba for 20 years and
is much loved by the people of Cuba. More about that in my Cuban Experience story.



This is me with Robbie our young Irish friend, having tea in a little restaurant in Old Havana. I'm having Cimarone Bruschette - grilled shrimps with rice mixed with black beans. Delish!



By the time the night ended we were at the silly stage - think I was taking a running jump into the lift here!

Some of these are out of sequence but you'll get the drift - Bloss, Robbie and in taken at the bar in El Floridita

Much later in the evening in a bar somewhere with Michael who we encountered who was also from Ireland and Pablo, a native Cuban


Bloss and I did a Hemmingway tour visiting his former home which is now a museum, all his former haunts and the fishing village of Cojimba where his boat was moored. This is a bust to commemorate him.

And this big building up on the hill is our hotel - just like a grand old lady!

OK that will do for now. I can feel now that I've gained weight - the first place - that roll above my waist - yikes it's growing but my promise to me (and you) is that in 8 days time I'll be firmly back on the healthy eating (and no drinking) path.

Sorry haven't been able to even read your blogs this past week - will just have to do a big catch up when I get home.

Take care everyone
Love Z xx

Second Hand Report

We're iin Cuba now and only have limited internet access - paying for it 15 mins at a time, so don't thin I'll have any time to catch up on your blogs. I don't even have much time to post on my own - I also couldn't get on to Blogger most of the time when we were in Cancun (with free wifi access!! Anyway just so you don't all feel neglected I've pasted a copy of the last email I sent to friends and family which will just keep you up to date on what's happening. Sorry no pictures though - it would just be too hard (and expensive!!). Hope everyone is well - catch you all soon. Love Z xx

Hi Folks, Well week 3 of the trip is over – so on the downward slope – buggar!! – but still lots to come. We had a lovely time with Reid, Christy and the boys – we’re known to them as Papa Bear and Granny Annie – so it was lovely for Craig when we pulled up at their house and this little boy came hurtling towards him with his arms out, excitedly shouting Papa Bear at the top of his voice. Our time with them involved : Lots of grandparent time with Ryde (3 this month) and Cord (10 months) – who are not at all shy and full of fun and energy Visit to a local winery – where the owner is a former nuclear physicist from the “Lab” who we reckon is now well into his 80’s but a fascinating character with lots of stories to tell Go see and climb into the ancient cliff dwellers homes at Bandolier National Monument Visit the Los Alamos Science Museum which tells the story and history of the Los Alamos National Lab (which is where both Reid and Christy work) Some lovely outings to local Mexican restaurants A trip from Santa Fe to Lamy on an old train (old 1900 carriages / diesel engine). This was particularly good fun as Ryde is absolutely IN to trains so his enjoyment and excitement were fantastic to see. A soak in Reid and Christy’s hot tub under the New Mexican stars – a wonderful sensation Since we had an early flight on the Saturday morning, we all drove to Albuquerque on the Friday – taking the mountain route which showed us some completely different aspects of New Mexico. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Albuquerque which has a two story waterslide and we’re sure that in the space of an hour Ryde must have been up and down the slide at least 100 times! Papa Bear managed it a few times too! So on Saturday it was on to Mexico and the wonderful town of Cancun. Our hotel was booked for room only but on arrival we were told that we could upgrade to an all inclusive for $59 US each a day. This means that we get all our food – both buffet and a la carte meals, all drinks – and this includes beer, wine, and cocktails and also internet access and one room service meal everyday as well as anything from the mini bar. So needless to say we upgraded – especially knowing how much we had been spending on meals and drinks up to now in our travels. So I’m actually sitting in the Lobby Bar (where I have to go to get wireless access) writing this as I sip on an “Electric Lemonade”. Don’t actually know what’s in it but it tastes real good and is a beautiful fluorescent yellow in colour What we have noticed though is that all the alcohol is weak – think they must dilute everything. Probably not a bad idea from both hotel and customers’ point of view!! It’s a beautiful resort – and our room is a two storey condo style – marble stairs leading down into a eating, sitting area with a little balcony looking out on the Gulf of Mexico. Up to the left on entering is a mezzanine bedroom and the bathroom is on the entry level. So all in all rather swish! So no sightseeing to speak of on this leg – just been chilling out – had a walk around yesterday and checked out a couple of shopping centres and today we took a cab into Ciudad Cancun on the mainland as I had unfortunately lost the little bit of paper which was my Tourist Entry Card for Cuba and needed to visit the Air Mexicana office. Had initially had a bit of a panic about this then emailed Mark at our travel agents and he did a bit of quick research and replied that I could sort it out here in Cancun. Turns out I can just renew it at the airport tomorrow as we’re leaving. So the rest of today will involve some more reclining by and dipping into the pool and then more eating and drinking. Darn good job we’ve only 3 days here or we’d be the size of a house! Just heard today about Hurricane Felix but it looks like we’re in the clear from him! Met a young Scottish couple at breakfast this morning (they old us about Felix) – turns out they’re from Kincardine (for the non Scottish recipients – I lived in Kincardine which is only a small town for 3 years prior to migrating to Australia – I had both boys while living there) – he owns the fish and chip shop there!! It’s that small world again! Anyway we’re off to Havana tomorrow – oh the busy life of a traveler!! OK time to pick up my second Electric Lemonade. Hope everyone is well