Made it!

First of all belated Happy Christmas to you all. Life has been a tad busy for the past two or three days and I just haven't found time to hop on to blogger - but those of you who I know on FB will have seen some of what's been happening to me.

I won't backtrack to when I last posted - don't think I can remember anyway. Christmas eve we went round to have a meal and drinks with friends, Christmas morning we had breakfast at another friends, then got myself all finally packed and we went into town and had drinks with Shaz and her son and daughter and from there round to Grant and Tiff's. Left there about 5pm to go to the airport for my flight at 6pm. As many of you will have heard we've had amazing rainfall and now flooding in Central Queensland. The problem on Christmas night was visibility due to low cloud cover. My plane was arriving from Rockhampton but couldn't see to land at Gladstone - two tries and then it went back to Rocky to refuel. Came back about an hour and a half later - another two tries and still couldn't land so carried on to Brisbane without us!!

So Christmas night and all my flights needed to be rebooked! Fortunately I have a one in a million travel agent whose mobile number I have - so at 9pm he with the help of some of his airport staff made the booking changes but it needed to be reticketed before I started on the journey. By 8.30am on Boxing Day he was on the phone to say it was all sorted out. But the weather was still horrendous and I was seriously doubting whether or not I'd be able to get out of Gladstone that day. We made the decision I should try for the 1.30pm flight rather then wait for the 17.30 flight - in the hope that the light would be better earlier in the day. I'm pleased to say the 1.30pm landed OK. So then started my monster journey - a 10 hour wait in Brisbane for my flight to HK, then 5 hours in HK, then an absolutely brilliant flight through to Frankfurt - my section of the plane only about a third full so had an entire row to myself - makes for a fabulous sleep on a 13 hour flight! Then into Frankfurt and overnight at the Mercure hotel at the airport, a yummy breakfast the next morning then back to the airport and on the 12 noon flight to Edinburgh and there were my wonderful family waiting for me.

The first night was just Mum, my sister and brother in law and I and lots of catching up with many laughs. Yesterday we just had a quiet day at home and then last night Mum, Linda and Frank (the two mentioned above), my brother George and wife Lorna and my two nephews Cameron and Lloyd and I all went to the pantomime. It was Snow White. The last time I had been to the panto was with the Girl Guides I think when I was about 12 but it was still as much fun as it was way back then. So lovely to hear how much the little kids enjoyed it and of course that quirky Scottish humour - with the particular slant that only Glaswegians can put on it. It was fantastic. We went for dinner first at a little Italian restaurant just across the road from the theatre.

So today we're heading for Stirling for a spot of shopping while Mum and Linda get their eyes tested. Bloss is coping OK at home - was a bit of a worry there for a while about the floods - so much so that a policeman arrived at the door on Monday warning him to be prepared to evacuate. However the rain has eased these past two days so the panic is over for now - but I think it might be quite a scary couple of months if we start to get a few cyclones moving around.

And now a couple of photos :


My sister, brother and I - I'm the eldest - 9 years older then my sister and 12 and a half years older than my brother



My sister in law and Mum

Me with my two nephews

Bloss and I on Christmas morning

My brother and I



My brother in law and sister

Right then that the latest from me - will try not to take so long to get back next time.  Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones and wishing you all the very best for 2011. 

Love Z xx

Wacky Weather

It seems to be all over the world - crazy weather - either totally unseasonable or the other extreme soooo ultra seasonable.  Here in Queensland we're just having amazing amounts of rainfall with the odd super humid day inbetween.  We can sit on the deck and practically watch the lawn grow!  It could be an interesting new year for us - our house is at the lowest point in our street, and of course we're right beside the river.  We have a large drain at the foot of our driveway into which all the water run off from the street drains away across the road to the river.  But.... upriver from us is the Awoonga Dam - which was doubled in size a few years back and never expected to fill - but it did and is currently running over.  So line up all the holes in the cheese - we have the aftermath of a cyclone (and they're predicting a big season), the dam is flowing over with a vengeance, it's one of the January king tides in the river and the rain is falling out of the sky - where might it go - hmmmm might come in our front door!!!

Meanwhile there's my trip to Scotland - I leave here on Christmas night and fly to Brisbane, then on to Hong Kong and into Frankfurt late Sunday night. I think that bit might be OK.  But then there's this horrendous weather they're having in Europe and if I'd been making my trip today my flight from Frankfurt to Edinburgh was cancelled because of the snow in Frankfurt and to a lesser extent in Edinburgh.  It would be so frustrating to be within an hour's flight of my destination and not be able to make it - but hey it's the weather and there's nothing you can do about it so just get on with it and hope for the best.

Only four more days of work - frantically busy - trying to get all the performance review stuff sorted out and leave everything kind of organised for the person who'll be looking after my departments as well as her own.

Packing wise I think I'm all sorted - so just the beauticians tomorrow night for a defuzz, hairdressers on Wednesday for a cut and a root perm to give my a bit of body and I'll nearly be all ready.

Now to share a funny story - well I think it is.  I download some movies sometimes from one of the file sharing sites.  So I had a copy of Toy Story 3 and was babysitting the boys on Friday night and Josh asked to watch it.  I almost plugged my laptop into the TV and left them to it but then decided I might want to do stuff on it so I copied the file to my external drive and loaded it on to the other laptop.  Then I'm sitting there with Josh firing it up when suddenly all these strange looking pictures start scrolling across the screen - like frames in a movie.  It took a few seconds for me to realise that it was bloody porn!  The flaming movie I'd downloaded had been named Toy Story 3 but trust me there were no normal toys in the bit I saw.  So there's me getting all flustered clicking away frantically trying to shut the bloody thing down and saying to Josh - who was looking on interestedly - that there was a problem with the movie and it certainly wasn't what I thought it was.  I had to fess up to Grant and Tiff the next day - who fortunately thought it was quite hilarious.  But a lesson for me to check first!!!

And now a brilliant photo



Curtis' graduation from Day Care



It was Curtis' graduation from Day Care last week. He's a funny little bugger and can very easily decide he doesn't want to play and just packs a major spak attack. Tiff thought he might freak at the thought of the cap and gown but as you can see he played to the crowd!!!!

Ok not sure when the next post will be - possibly not till I'm whiling away 5 hours in Hong Kong airport.  So wishing each and everyone of you a very very happy and safe Christmas and hoping that you can realise at least one of your dreams in 2011.

Love Zxxx

Head Hanging!!

Yes my dear 'blends' my head is hanging in shame it's been so long since I've last posted.  Life is just so so busy - not a really good excuse since it only takes 10 minutes to rattle up a post.  Anyway I'm here.  So what's been happening - think a few dot points might be in order to bring you up to date with my life

• new job - fantastic - loving it especially now that I'm starting to feel that I'm almost back in control.  The first few weeks were quite scary for me - I'm such a control freak and I really felt that I'd lost it - so many things happening and so much knowledge I didn't have.  But the last week or so I'm starting to feel like I'm driving again (rather than hurtling down a mountainside with no brakes!).  I've managed to fill a couple of long standing vacancies we had, our annual performance reviews are coming together nicely, I'm making big inroads with our reporting system and I've come up with a process for our supplementary labour hire
• work Christmas party - decided our team would go to the races - great day - only trouble was that it was so wet that there were actually no horses running at the race track - but that didn't stop a good time happening
• weight - crap - haven't put any on - in fact have dropped a kilo but it should be much more than that but my head is just not in the right place - I quite regularly get angry with myself but nup - still just not doing exactly what I should
• No 2 son - has a new lady in his life - so excited about that - he doesn't usually share much until it's getting quite serious. He's currently working in Korea - 8 weeks on and 2 off and has been going to Melbourne mostly on his 2 off - supposedly because he's building a couple of town houses there and of course  his Dad is there at the moment too.  Anyway he skyped me the other night and was telling me what his plans were for the new year - he's up here late December - but of course I'll have left for Scotland by then - anyway break after that he's heading to Bali and then another break he has plans to go to Fiji.  He ever so casually mentioned that 'Joe' wanted to go to Fiji.  Up till then I'd just assumed he was going with some of his mates.  Anyway I just as casually asked if that would be Joe with an "e" or without an "e".  It's a little game we play as we know each other so well.  It was without an 'e'!  Of course he expected me to deluge him with questions at that stage so instead I said well that's lovely I'm so happy for you and changed the subject.  Round 1 to Mum!    Anyway from then on there was lots of further input to me from one of his friends and from DiL, Tiff.  I won't go on and on but the lady in question is actually his 'step' cousin if there such a relationship. His Dad's wife's niece who he's known for about 10 years but they finally hooked up last Easter. So fingers crossed it works out for him - don't know when I'll get to meet here - looks like it might be this time next year - but as long as Clive is happy then I'm happy!
• getting very excited about the trip to Scotland - two weeks tonight I'll be on the plane to Brisbane.  Mind you not looking forward to the weather - they've had it incredibly tough in Central Scotland this past week or so - and I'm not sure there's going to be that much improvement by the time I get there.
• Zanna has had surgery on both her ear and eye a week or so ago.  She was scheduled to have surgery on her eye for a haemangio - like a little blood blister - which need to be removed or it could grow and affect her tear ducts.  But two days before she was due to have the op she developed a massive haematoma on her ear - mainly becuase of her allergies - she scratches and shakes her head and bursts a blood vessel in her ear which fills up her ear with blood.  Only cure is surgery.  Anyway she ended up getting them both done - one a couple of days early and is recovering nicely.
• Bloss is well- has gone off fishing for the day with his boss - left at 3am this morning and due back around 9pm tonight - with lots of lovely reef fish I hope.
• I got an extra $500 in last month's pay in recognition of 15 years service with Rio so I decided to use it to put towards buying an Iphone for myself - and I did - and I adore it - I'm such a gadgety geek!

So now you're all up to date - my bags are pretty well packed - it's been a bit of a struggle since I'm flying Lufthansa this trip and I only get a 20 kg allowance - with Qantas because I'm a Qantas club member I get 30kg - and of course it's all heavier winter clothes I need to take and I want to take pressies too.  But I think I've got it all sorted out.

Ok chickens - a few photos now -

All prettied up ready to go to the races

These are the ladies I work with and the one kneeling is my boss - a brilliant bunch of people



My friend Deb was also at the races as her company were having their Christmas do there too



On Monday night we went to the Entertainment Centre to see Shelly who was in the cast of a production of the Nutcracker - here's Deb and Shelly together



Clive asked me to drop by the house he's built in Gladstone as he had just organised to have turf laid and he wondered how it looked so good old Maw took a few pics and sent them to him.

Another friend and workmate who moved to Brisbane a couple of months ago was back in town on Thursday night so a few of her friends went out for tea.  This is me with another of her friends - who also used to be a workmate of mine but now works at another Rio site.

And that's it  - so sorry that I've been so slack on commenting - I have been trying to have a quick read whenever I can but unfortunately not taking time to comment - but hope everyone out there is doing OK.  When I've got 5 hours to kill in Hong Kong airport in two weeks time - I'll be sprinkling words of wisdom and compliments galore everywhere.

Take care possums
Love Zanna xxx

The Birthday Boy

Another crazy week at work but ever so slowly my head is bobbing a bit further out of the water.  It's been a terribly sad week for us at work - almost 1300 people on our site but many of them have been there for a while and our local area isn't that big.  Anyway on Saturday a young 15 year old 'borrowed' his parents 4WD and went for a ride in an bush area which has the main line for the coal trains running through.  He managed to bog the 4WD and waved to a coal train to stop - the driver stopped in accordance with their procedures but the lad had disappeared from sight by the time he stopped.  Unfortunately he'd tried to hitch a ride on the roof of the train which is electric and the power is so strong that you can be a couple of meters away from the wire but it will still electrocute you - and that's what happened. His step father is one of our people. What a tragic waste of a young life.

Then one of the HR Advisers at the other local Rio site - where I used to go two days a week - lost her father.  A terribly sad story too - she lost her mother about 6 months ago after a battle with cancer.  On Saturday her sister was getting married at Agnes Waters - a nice beach resort area about an hour and a half from here.  As far as I know the wedding went really well, but on Monday night apparently a little 9 year old boy was in difficulty in the water and her Dad went to help and while the little boy was OK, her dad drowned - only 48.  I only heard this morning and I can't stop thinking about how this poor girl and her family must be feeling.

On a happier note Curtis had his 5th birthday on Sunday - can't believe he's that age already.  They were in Brisbane for the weekend as Grant and Tiff went to the final Powderfinger concert and then they got back Sunday night so we called round to see the birthday boy and had takeaway tea with them.

A couple of photos :

This one was at our place a couple of weeks ago - happy family!

On Sunday Bloss and I went for a bit of a drive and saw this pretty flowering shrub

The birthday boy and his brother opening pressies

Time to blow out the candles - think this was his 3rd cake for the day

But it didn't stop him from enjoying it - icing first of course!

And that's it from me folks - I've managed day 1 on the new WW Pro Point plan so here's to the rest of the week.

Have a great week peeps
Z xx

Pssst - have you seen???

Only a tiny post - will post properly when I get a minute.  But just been checking the new Pro Points for WW.  Not sure how many of you out there are dyed in the wool WWers like me.  Our UK friends have had it for about a week now and I've been reading all their comments and been waiting patiently to see when it would go live here - and it was today.  Anyway it looks quite different - going to take me a while to reprogramme my brain - been counting points in my head for almost nine years now - so a bit of re-educating to do.  But I've never been afraid of change - stops me from becoming boring and getting in a rut - god forbid!!!  And maybe five weeks on a new programme will get me closer to where I'd like to be before heading off to Scotland. 

OK off for now - just wanted to share with you all.
Back soon
Zxx

Just not quite getting it!

That's me folks - I just can't quite find the right headspace to get into loss mode - so so often the trouble when I come back from holiday - I'm holding steady beautifully but I know I'm going to be so annoyed at myself if I haven't shifted a kilo or two before I leave for Scotland - and that's only six and a half weeks away. I go really well during the week but then kick back a bit on the weekend. Food is not really the problem - it's the wine or six that I think I deserve after a massive week at work. Oh well I'll take my own advice and just keep trying to fake it till I make it.

Last week was my first in the new role and by Tuesday/Wednesday I was feeling totally swamped and just wanted to come up for air. I'm sure those of you who've moved into a new job/position can relate. It's just trying to get your head round where everything is - electronic file storage wise and you spend half of every conversation translating the new 'speak' in your head into something you understand. Actually already this week it's coming together a bit. Trouble is I'm such a control freak and hate that feeling that I'm not on top of things. But I do believe it's making more sense this week- but so so much happening - we've a fairly major organisational restructure happening and many of the positions moving into my departments - and the receiving department does all the requests for change, updated role change letters etc. Then of course it's final review time for our performance management system - some very fixed timelines and deadlines for that.

I've been managing though to still get up early and walk most mornings and certainly feel that gets my day off to a good start. Socially life has been a bit quieter - haven't been up to that much. We did go along to the local BAM festival on the weekend (Beach Arts Music) which is on once a month. Lots of little crafty stalls in the park area on the Esplanade - right by the beach and a selection of live bands playing. People just take along a few chairs, some nibbles and a drink or two and just chill listening to the music and have a little wander to check out the stalls. I found a good second hand book stall. Josh is an excellent and keen reader. I bought him a collection of Roald Dahl books as part of his birthday present and he read the whole lot in a couple of weeks. At this stall I managed to get two Paul Jennings books - again compilations - and got the two for $5 - bargain! So he was thrilled to get them last night. On Saturday morning also found the complete Chronicles of Narnia in one book instead of 6 - for only $21 in Kmart - so that's a bit of his Christmas present.

A few photos below :

Taken on one my morning walks - love the shape of these pods on a Poinciana tree



A couple of guys off up the river fishing - at 5.30am



A tree orchid - just growing on one of the trees along the way

Close up - isn't it pretty

Found a couple of hibiscus flowers lying on the grass - brought them home and tried to capture their beauty

Bloss and I at BAM - the theme for this one was Hippies - hence the peace sign - though Bloss's looks a bit limp!!



Thought you might like to see the new lounge in situ complete with new cushions - see Zanna peeking in from the deck



So had to get new cushions for this one too

Felt I wanted something striking in this vase which has the plain white wall as a backing so got these 'snowflakes'

So not much more in the way of news that I can think of. Hope all is well in all your worlds
Love Zxx

Early One Morning

Thought I'd better get my finger out and get a post done before the end of the month or I'd only have posted once in October - how slack! All well here - incredibly busy at work as I try to hand over my previous role and climb a fairly steep learning curve in my new one. I officially start in the new position on Monday.

 It seems to be quite a varied role - I have to manage all our transit housing - currently we have nine, produce all the month end reports for the site as well as the departments who are my clients. I've got four departments to look after - all the Service and Support areas - so Health, Safety & Environment, Commercial and Business Improvement, Projects and HR. We don't actually do recruitment on site - it's handled centrally but obviously we are the liaison between our recruitment team and our customer and also the onsite person who manages the candidate when they're here for interview, start on site etc. I also have to conduct exit interviews when anyone leaves the business. Then there's the performance management side of things which happens through out the year - interim reviews for all staff then final reviews. My role also looks after things like the Service awards function we were at the other week as well as the monthly notification to managers when people reach their milestone (5,10,15 years etc)and produce a letter which is presented along with a pen on the anniversary date. The other big challenge is supplementary labour - a huge cost to the business and currently not very well managed so I'm charged with sorting that into some semblance of order. So as you can see my head will spinning for the first few weeks but nonetheless it's such a stimulating feeling to feel challenged.

Weight still holding steady - damn - I want it to be sliding downhill! I am hoping for a bit of a loss this week though - started walking again every morning and cut out the alcohol again all week so Monday should show a loss.

Which brings me to the title of this post - the first morning I walked the sky was amazing - full of gorgeous pink clouds just on sunrise - and I didn't have my camera. So I've taken it with me every other day - no more pink skies but I did get a few nice shots.  I live in a beautiful area - directly across from our house is a walking/bike track which winds its way along the side of the river and at 5am is virtually deserted - wonderful!

Just as the sun was coming up - about 4.50am

Sun still not up yet - just the dawn light

Sun up this morning - Saturday so a bit later - about 5.30am

And again

The little boats in the early morning sun

My beautiful Zanna

Looking up the river

Heading back towards home now

What you doing Ma!

The houses in our street

Almost home - that's our stone coloured gable

Now you can see it

Garden looking good after all the recent rain

Beautiful lawns - Bloss mowed the other day

Ok heading in now - time for a coffee - it's 5.45am.

Hope you're all well - I'm off now to try and catch up on some commenting - I'm guilty of just having a quick read to keep up to date with you all but not taking time to comment - I'll try and do better!! 
Love Z xx

Gladrags

This last couple of weeks have been all about getting gladrags on - and my pictures reflect that.  Sorry FB friends you're in for a repeat performance.

Friday of last week we had the big Bravo! award night which went incredibly well and I was so pleased to have it all over but then I had to crank up again for last night when we had a Service Awards function and I was again in charge of the music/picture through the presentations.  However after a  drama or two before the show started - doesn't half get your adrenalin going -we got it all together - but I had to be a 'techie' for the night - behind the screen making the slideshow happen with the audio guy.  But it all went according to plan and a big sigh of relief at the end - that's the last one for the time being.

Big news on the work front - it all came together in the last 10 days - I'm transferring from a Learning and Development Advisor to a Human Resources Adviser role - a major sea change and I'm so excited.  I've had a hankering for a while to diversify into HR but since I didn't have direct HR experience thought it wouldn't happen.  But our HR Specialist asked me to consider applying for a role she had for an HR Advisor - I decided to give it a go - all went well - interview went well - but then they decided to appoint someone else with more HR Generalist experience to the role but told me that there could be an opportunity coming up - all too complicated to explain here - but I guessed what was happening in the background and was colouring their decisions so just went with the flow.  Anyway all the ducks lined up last week and I was offered the role and I've taken it - very excited - lots of new stuff to learn and the potential to have a whole new skill set in my 'toolbox'.  Also considering enrolling for a Dip. HR Managment to give me some of the knowledge I need - very exciting times for me.

So eating has been quite ordinary with all the other things happening - looks like I've hung on to the 800g loss but not managed to add anything to it but once again a whole new sphere of my life starting so I'm going to hook up to that and make clever things happen.

Lots of photos coming up -

Had no idea what to do with my hair for the Bravo awards the week before last - then someone at work said why not wear it up.  My hairdresser was off to Brisbane for the weekend so I found someone local who could fit me in and this is what she did - loved it and got bucket loads of compliments.

This is what it looked like from the back

Bloss and I at the dinner

The obligatory full length shot

Sunday last week was Josh's 9th birthday - fraught with difficulty as my ex husband was there - and he doesn't normally talk to either me or Bloss and it's all a bit tense. However this one was much better (some of you may remember the enforced meeting back in Scotland a couple of years ago which went a long way toward encouraging better relationships) and we were all really quite relaxed and hospitable.

The character! so so much attitude!

After we left the birthday lunch we popped in to Harvey Norman.  We have two leather recliners and a 3 seater lounge - but that leaves us sadly lacking when we've six people visiting!  So decided we needed a little 2 seater.  This is what we've ordered but in black - hopefully it will turn up in the next week or so.

So now we move on to this weekend - the company Service awards dinner - here I am all tarted up and ready to go



Got my hair done agin - slightly different style this time to coordinate better with what I was wearing

And this is what it looked like from the back

And then when we got home around 12.30am I took all the pins out and brushed all the spray out and this is what it looked like.  Bloss commented that this shot looks like I've got no clothes on - I actually have a sarong wrapped around me.  But Picasa is so kind and lets you make yourself look incredibly glam - and I always did have a hankering to be a Calendar Girl!!

That's it for the past couple of weeks - back soon and hope you're all having a wonderful life!

Love Xxx