Lots of little jobs

Yes, lots of errands and chores happening at the moment. All those little things you need to do when you're away for an extended period - the rates fall due while we're gone so need to make sure we pay them on time to get the discount, arrange for the post office to hold the mail, check with the kennels that they've got Zanna booked in OK, notify the credit card company that we'll be touring Europe (otherwise they may put a stop to the card till they ascertain that we're actually there ... and so on. But I think I've got most of them covered. Weight - overall down about 2 kilos in the last few weeks - not one of my best efforts but better than nothing. It's my birthday tomorrow but celebrations started on Friday night. Tiffany my D in L suggested that their present be a night out to see these guys.

The Sydney Hotshots - for those of you who haven't heard of them they're a Male Revue show (or upmarket tasteful male strippers!). These shows are always fun - watching the crowd is as much fun as watching the show! Anyway she treated both Shaz and I, and Tam, Shaz's daughter iss home from Dubai at the moment so she came too. We went ouf for tea first then to the show and had a great night. Some photos below.

Me at Shaz's ready to leave. Tam had been telling us that some photographer lady she knew said that the most flattering way to be photographed was to put your body in an S shape - hence all the 'S' poses in these photos!

Here we all are - this one was taken with the camera on automatic timer perched on top of a wheelie bin - but it did the trick - see all those "S's"

Having dinner before the show

And then they identified anyone who was there for a special occasion - no chance of my lot keeping quiet so up on stage I go and we each had to fake an orgasm -no worries mate I've done one or two of those in my lifetime!!! But I tell you what some of theses young chickies had it down to a fine art - makes you wonder whether they've got brilliant lovers so they know exactly what it's like - or on the other hand do they spend a lot of their time faking it and so are really good at it???

Today Curtis, my younger grandson is coming for the day - it's the footy grand finals and he's a bit young to enjoy these whereas Josh at almost 8 just takes off and plays with his friends. So I'll need to get out of bed shortly and I'm picking him up - and I want to call past and say goodbye to Tam who heads off back to Dubai this afternoon. Then at night we'll take him home and Grant and Tiff are cooking a barbie for my birthday. Last nighht Bloss took me out for dinner to a local restaurant which we hadn't tried - Rocks@lt. Yummy meal - I had stuffed button mushrooms - 3 cheeses and bacon - absolute bliss then Atlantic salmon with bok choy, green beans, rocket and kipfler potatoes - also delish. Then we headed to the Coffee Club for a coffee and Bloss had his favourite Citrus Tart- me - I was too full to have anything other than a coffee.

So a great weekend I haven't had to cook tea for 3 nights - how good it that?

Yesterday these were delivered (complete with vase) from Clive and Luana in Singapore - first my namoradeira then these - gee I'm lucky lady.

All right possums, must get myself out of bed and organised. Hope all is well in your worlds and only 10 more days of work for me then 6 weeks glorious holidays. Yeee Ha!!!!

Z xx

Been Walkabout

Well I haven't really - just a bit busy and kept putting off getting my act together and doing an update.

Life has been busy and good. Eating and exercise not quite so good! I'm still the same as I was last post and fast running out of time to do anything much about it. I'm not unhappy at this weight but would just be happier a bit lighter. But enough of that - what's been occupying my time?

Well work for one thing - been busy and a couple of weeks ago was asked if I could go with a colleague from one of our Brisbane offices to spend a couple of days at a coal mine about an hour and a half inland from Mackay. They were having a few difficulties with the Learning Management System and needed some help in setting up their reports. Reporting has become my sort of specialty area plus I guess I'm regarded as one of the system's power users. While the main focus of my role is on the two sites in this area, one of our team functions is to service and support Rio Tinto sites all over the East coast of Australia. It was great to meet new people and get the opportunity to find out more about a different facet of Rio - my work is normally with aluminium - refining and smelting. The mine has it's own village (camp) and we stayed there for the two nights we were up there - an amazingly well thought out and well run place. I also got a tour of the mine - and the sheer magnitude of it and the machinery used just blew me away.

Then we get the lovely news that No 2 son was coming for a short visit and bringing his girlfiend with him. I think I've posted before that Luana is from Brazil and they've been maintaining a long distance relationship with Clive visiting Brazil every couple of months. He's been working in Singapore since March and this last break when he went back to Brazil he brought her back to Singapore with him. Last week they had a few days in Bali, then came to us for a few days then this morning have headed off to Perth to see his dad then back to Singapore on Wednesday. We had a hilarious half hour last night trying to capture the whole family in one photo using the camera on timer. But here's probably the best of the bunch.

On Thursday night Clive and Luana gave me a huge box to open - my birthday is in a couple of weeks and they won't be here so were giving me my present early. This is what I got:

She's a namoradeira. It's a difficult word to translate but the closest seems to be 'the flirt'. In Brazil many houses have a namoradeira on their window ledge - she's is always posed the same way with her hand on her cheek, looking at the passersby and trying to catch their attention. Luana bought this lovely lady unpainted and her godmother's sister hand painted her for me. Then she was transported from Brazil to Singapore, then Singpaore to Bali and then finally from Bali to Queensland. So I feel very special to have been given such a lovely present which has had so much thought and care gone into it and is a part of another country's traditions. Here's a picture of the lovely couple

So just over four weeks till the tart starts travelling again. Beginning to get very excited and got organising and packing preparation happening. I'm one of these people who enjoy the journey as much as the destination so am actually loving all the research into where we're going, what the weather will be like and what kind of gear we should take.

All right peeps I think that's youn all up to date with what's been happening in my life. I've managed I think, to keep track of you all and left a sprinkling of comments here and there. So have a great week - back soon!!

Love Zxx