Finding Focus

Well I've been home a week now - not the best week ever but it's all coming good now. I always struggle when I come back from UK to get my internal clock back to the right time. Funnily enough I don't have a problem coming or going anywhere else. So it meant about one and half hours sleep on both Sunday and Monday nights last week and while I got an extra day off on Monday I did have to be back to work on Tuesday. I had to leave at 3pm though as I was literally falling asleep at my desk. However each night it got a bit better and I can honestly say now that I feel well rested and back to normal (or as normal as I ever get LOL)

Foodwise I've tried to get back on the straight and narrow as I brought a couple of kilos back with me!!! Altogether I have been really quite good this week but the scales aren't showing anything clever which is quite disappointing. Mind you I was so full of airline food last Sunday that I didn't eat anything until well through Monday so when I had my reckoning weigh in I was probably quite dehydrated and then of course I've been so tired that exercise hasn't been on my list of things to do either. However I can say that I've had 5 alcohol free days this week and that my food intake has been good and measured. So the plan for this week is to maintain that good food intake, no alcohol and try to get the exercise regime up and running again.

Below I've posted some pics of Scottish icons both food and other. And it's some of those icons which have contributed to my 2kg excess baggage!!

This guy is innocent - he's just someone who always makes me think of Sundays as a kid - reading "Oor Wullie" which was a cartoon in our Sunday paper.

One of my favourites here - square sliced Lorne sausage - love this grilled - it's very fatty and some people even fry it which must make it a heart attack sandwich but we always grill ours to a frazzle.

And of course no visit to Scotland is complete without Haggis, Neeps and Tatties - haggis, swede turnip and potatoes is the translation.

An old favourite - my granny always used to have these in the biscuit tin and I loved them (and still do!) Confess to having two of them this trip.

And another reason why people in the West of Scotland have such a high rate of heart disease - the ubiquitous Scotch Pie - I had one of those too - but it had been sitting in a pie warmer for a while so wasn't that nice at all and in fact had all the fat dried out of it I'd say!

So not really a lot to say this week - have had an incredibly lazy long weekend but feel like I'm ready to tackle the week ahead. Made a few appointments - the optometrist on Wednesday - really need to update my glasses - and thinking that I'm going to try contacts for my distance vision. Thursday I've got a doctor's appointment - need to get my thyroxene script updated and want to discuss getting a long standing varicose vein on my leg fixed - doesn't pose me too much of a problem but does both itch and ache sometimes and is becoming increasingly ugly - and I figure that since I've got private health cover I might as well use it. After the doctor's it's off to the hairdressers again - went there on Saturday and got a colour to cover up all those nasty dark bits but it's very flat so getting a root perm to lift it a bit - still persevering with growing it. Then Saturday is waxing day - time to get all the bits tidied up! Other major plan in the offing is to finally sign up to the gym which opened locally about 6 months ago. I've been thinking about it for a while but to get the best deal I need to sign up for a 12 monthly direct debit and I've been reluctant to do that as I've been tripping around so much but since I'm now in for a long 'dry' spell I feel that now would be a good time to make the commitment. Watch this space!

So that's my two bobs worth for this week - I've already done some forward planning for the weeks healthy eating - the jellies and fruit are made and in the fridge and I've prepared a huge bowl of mixed salad and the plan is that for the next couple of days I'll just fill a container, add some ham, salmon or tuna and I'll have a ready made lunch. So here goes and hopefully I'll have a decent number to report next week. I'm definitely not liking the spare tyre - it's where it always goes first!

Take care lovelies!
Z xx

An Ever Expanding Adventure

THURSDAY 17 JANUARY Well I’m having wee adventure! Yesterday afternoon I was scheduled to fly out of Glasgow for Amsterdam on the 4.30pm flight. My mum, sister and I left home and headed out for lunch then they took me to the airport. I said my goodbyes at 4pm and took my seat on the flight to Amsterdam. About 20 minutes out of Glasgow, the captain’s voice comes over the PA system saying that we have a technical problem with the de-icers and that since the weather in Amsterdam is freezing, we’re turning back to Glasgow to resolve the problem if possible. So we get back to Glasgow, and sit in the departure lounge for about an hour and half while they try to fix the problem. Eventually we were told that the problem wasn’t going to be fixed that night and that we should retrieve our luggage from the carousel downstairs and go to the KLM Servisair desk to be rerouted. So 7pm finds me standing almost at the back of a long queue – and it took till 10.30pm to get to the front of that queue. With Amsterdam being a transit stop for flights all over the world, you can imagine the nightmare the staff had trying to get people on other flights. I spent last night at the Ramada Hotel at Glasgow Airport, courtesy of KLM and I’m still there this morning as I write this. I have a new itinerary with a completely different route and airline. I was meant to fly Glasgow/Amsterdam /Singapore/Brisbane – arriving there at around 10am on Friday. Instead I’m flying to London at 2pm this afternoon, out of London on Cathay Pacific at 10pm tonight to Hong Kong, 5 hours there, then on to Brisbane. I’ll get into Brisbane at 10.30am on Saturday morning but I still have to rearrange my flight from Brisbane up to home. I’ll be able to do that when I get to London. The upside to all of this is that I met some lovely people in the queue and ended up in the bar till 2am this morning with one couple. It was the old small world thing – the couple in front of me knew someone I went to school with – who I haven’t been in contact with for many years. The couple behind also had a friend who married someone I went to school with (and I hasten to add that I went to a very small primary school, and a not very big secondary school). Both these couples were on their way to Dubai via Amsterdam and they’ve been able to be rebooked on a direct flight to Dubai today with another airline. I don’t have internet access here (unless I pay for it) so I thought I’d put together a bit of a post in Word and I’ll cut and paste it when I get access – heaven only know when that will be! But I’ll be back…… SATURDAY 19 JANUARY Well the wee adventure has now turned into a much bigger adventure. I got to the airport and had been upgraded to business class to London so was sitting rather comfortably in the British Airways Terraces Lounge when the announcement was made that due to a serious incident Heathrow was closed till further notice. So the upshot of that was that I once again had to retrieve my luggage from the carousel and make my way back to the Servisair counter. One and a half hours later and phone calls to Amsterdam and I’m rebooked yet again for the following day. The difficulty was that there were no seats on flights into anywhere in Australia – they could get me to the Far East but got stuck trying to find a seat after that. Anyway the revised itinerary had me once again flying from Glasgow to Amsterdam, then to Tokyo then Brisbane – but what an ugly connection – into Tokyo at 10.30am and not out again until 10pm! So here I am now in Tokyo – and that wasn’t without a few scary moments – I had to transfer terminals then check in to get my boarding pass. When I did that they couldn’t find my reservation on the system. So I headed over to the Qantas Club (the one benefit of all this is that my flight to Brisbane is via Qantas and I’m a Qantas Club member which makes long hauls much easier) – the Qantas Club lady took me to another Transfer Connection Counter who again couldn’t find my reservation and sent me to take a seat – that was an uncomfortable 20 minute wait – wondering if I was going to have to stay in Tokyo (that was OK) but thinking ‘when in the hell am I going to get back to Australia – I’m due to start work again on Monday!’ However they turned up trumps and I’m now the proud possessor of a boarding pass and I’m sitting here in the Qantas lounge with a glass of chardy to restore my equilibrium. I still haven’t got internet access – but will sort that out shortly I hope and then I’ll be able to post this. And I still have to sort out my flight from Brisbane to home – that’s going to have to wait till I get to Brisbane I think! Ok I’m off now to see if I can get this laptop of mine to talk to the internet – I get wireless connection but then it won’t fire up – think I’ll reboot and see if it helps. So farewell for now my friends – my next post should be all about a porky lady getting back on the straight and narrow! Take care Love Z xx SUNDAY 20 JANUARY And just one more of those funny coincidences – just before I was ready to leave the Qantas Club in Tokyo – who do I see but Zac who’s office is next door to mine at work. He’d been on a snowboarding holiday in Japan and couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw me walk past on my way to the ladies and he’s thinking to himself – Didn’t know Anne was coming back via Tokyo!! I'm now in the Qantas club in Brisbane waiting for a flight home. I've finally got internet access so thought I'd quickly post this.

Birthdays, Boots and Blog Refit

Hello folks,
Just another quick post from the Heather Isle. As I think I mentioned in my last post, I'm finding that the internet connection I have here is pretty up and down only with my laptop so think it must be a setting on my PC.

First up you can see that I've given my blog a refit - decided that it was part and parcel of the refit and revamp I'll be doing to my eating and exercise habits and which will start when I get back to Oz at the end of next week.

My little stay in London was absolutely great - first of all I met up with my friend Shaz's daughter - we had a lovely time chatting over coffee and then doing a bit of shopping. Then it was time to meet up with my old school buddy after 36 years. It was great - we got on so well and had a lovely time reminiscing about people we used to know. On the first night we went out for dinner with his elder brother who I also know from school days. The next day I spent checking out the local shops - this was at Ealing Broadway and I had a wonderful time and managed to spend a dollar or two! That night Al cooked us a lovely meal while we wandered down a few more memory lanes. Then Tuesday morning it was time to fly back to Glasgow.

Mum continues to improve and this week we've managed a few outings to some aunties and uncles as well as a trip to the hairdresser today. Today in fact is her 75th birthday so we're all heading out to dinner at the local pub tonight.

I've been talking to Bloss and he seems to be managing to cope - suspect there's been a fair bit of takeaway in his diet these past couple of weeks!!

In good blogging tradition I've included a few photos with some comments below each one.

First up some gorgeous little boots I found when I was out shopping with Mum and my sister - ummed and aahhed about whether or not I should buy them - and finally I did - so glad cause I love them.

Next we have Bloss's Christmas present - I told him I wanted to get myself a pair of boots when I was in UK. I found these in London - so beautiful!

Found this place today which does embroidered jerseys for teddies. Mum has a collection of teddies on her bed so I bought this little chap above to add to them and had it embroidered and gave it to her on behalf of my boys and grand boys!

And here he is - the new member of the clan.

Well that's the news from me - only a few more days then I'm winging my way back home - and the good news is that it will only be a short farewell this time - my sister and husband are coming out to spend next Christmas with us and bringing Mum with them. So the next 11 months will just fly by. And it makes it so much easier for me to say goodbye next week.

I'm sorry I still haven't commented to any of you - it's all just been too hard but I have still been managing to have a quick read here and there and will look forward to catching up properly with you all next week.

Take care lads and lassies
Zanna xx

From the Wintry Wilds of Scotland

This was the scene from Mums lounge room window yesterday afternoon. Just a wee bit cold! We've still got some snow today but it's much more sleety.

But first news of Mum. I got a hugely pleasant surprise when I arrived here last Saturday afternoon - she looked so much better than I thought she would. And in the 6 days that I've been here she has continued to make progress each day. She's still quite tired a lot of the time but I guess that's only to be expected after a 5 hour op, 6 units of blood and being almost 75.

New Year's day brought us a surprise 'first foot' - a Scottish tradition where if the first person to cross your threshold after New Year is tall dark and handsome (and carrying a piece of coal) it brings you good luck for the rest of the year! Anyway our first foot was none other than my ex husband and his wife. He's been working in Iceland, the contract has just finished and they were holidaying around Scotland and Ireland. Made for a bizarre set up as he still would do anything rather than talk to me. However they stayed for the rest of the day and had dinner with us - all of which really pleased Mum as she always had a great relationship with him and so was happy that he'd taken the trouble to visit and his wife is easy to talk to and has no problem chatting to me. The photo above is one they took for us - back row, left to right my brother in law, my sister, my brother, my sister in law and then in front Mum, me and my two nephews standing in front of their parents.

This one was taken at my brother's house last night - shows that Mum is looking really quite well.

My sister, her husband and I managed to attend a couple of new year functions. This is us at a ceilidh held in a local pub.

And this is my brother and two nephews

No other real news - seem to be eating lots - and drinking lots of alcohol but not much water so suspect there'll be a bit of a rude awakening in a couple of weeks time! Heading off to London tomorrow to stay with my old school friend. But first up I'm meeting my friend Shaz's daughter who is currently holidaying and working in London. Monday I plan to indulge in a bit of retail therapy before flying back up to Glasgow on Tuesday.

OK folks, that's all for now - sorry for not commenting but my internet access has been very hit and miss since I got here - Mum and my sister are part of a local area wireless network and I've piggy backed on to it but for some reason my laptop doesn't always pick up the connection. But I am reading whenever I get the chance.

Happy new year everyone - make 2008 a masterpiece!!
Love
Z xx