Ready, Steady ....Go

You may have noticed a change to my side bar - The Challenge. I read about this challenge over on We are Slimming and it struck a chord for me. I was doing quite nicely up till Christmas but since then I'm back to faffing around - up a bit, down a bit but not really going anywhere and that would be fine if I was where I wanted to be - but I'm not. So ... 12 weeks - not that long out of a lifetime but long enough to make the difference I want. I'm also taking the suggestion I made in my last post about making February alcohol free a bit further and extending it to the 12 weeks of the challenge. I know I can do it if I put my mind to it - some of you may remember that a couple of years ago I went alcohol free from New Years Day till Easter and during that time had some very good losses. I know that it's alcohol that's my saboteur - I eat well all day and in the evenings too - but I don't have very many left over points and certainly not enough to indulge in a bottle of wine (or the best part thereof) which is what tends to happen most nights. And of course I've become very slack on the exercise front so I need to remedy that too.

So the plan - its the W's again
Wine - none of it
Walk and/or WiiFit - at least 5 times a week
Water - keep on drinking it - this one isn't a problem for me
WW online - use it to track points daily

Re. this last one - I know that for me to be successful I have to track points - I know I can maintain not too badly without counting but that if I want to lose I have to do the counting.

Weigh in tomorrow morning February 1 for Day 1 of the challenge. Bring it on!!

So I've had a bit of a let up this weekend but overall not too bad. Bloss and I decided to have a wee bit of R and R so we went down the coast a bit to Bargara - a little town just outside of Bundaberg - for a couple of nights. We had a lovely relaxing time - dinner out both nights, breakfast by the beach - a bit of a browse round the shops in Bundy and then headed home this morning. It's very wet here today - the after effects of Tropical Cyclone Olga.

So the obligatory couple of photos below :

The view from the balcony of the unit we had -you can see that although it was fine on Saturday the storm  clouds were brewing

Bloss at breakfast

Me at breakfast

Ok folks - not sure what's for tea tonight but I'm having the 'condemned man's' couple of wines with it then I'll be on that wagon for the next 12 weeks - and the very fact that I've told you guys will be enough to keep me on it - I hate having to admit defeat!

Take care possums and have a great week

Love Z xx

Bit late - but here I am

This week kind of got away from me - I've thought to myself several times that I need to post an update but have just never had enough time.

So what's been happening - well when I last posted Clive was scheduled to head to WA on the Tuesday - which he did.  Then Tuesday afternoon he rang me from Perth airport - he'd just landed and had two messages on his phone - another tropical low so he flew back here again on Wednesday.  It's doing wonders for his frequent flyer points!  He got the call on Monday night to fly back again this Tuesday - haven't spoken to him today but did speak to Grant who'd had an email from him.  He got on to the rig I believe for one day and... you've guessed it - another impending cyclone.  So he's back in Perth again.  He's staying in Perth though to try and sort out accommodation there as he'll be based there from now on rather than over here.

Which brings me to a funny story.  I work for Rio Tinto and the division I'm with has a branch here in central Queensland, one in Brisbane and an office in Perth.  Without splitting too many hairs my sort of equivalent in the Perth office is called Fliss (nickname).  I heard on Wednesday morning from another colleague here who'd been in a telecon with Fliss that the previous night she'd been interviewing a potential flatmate - and...... would you believe it was Clive!!!  How small is this world.  They'd discovered the connection during their conversation.

What else - ended up having Friday off work - got a doozy of a migraine during the night.  Have worked out that there is something in certain white wines which triggers them.  Had a lot of trouble 7/8 years ago and actually stopped drinking white wine but gradually got back to it without any real troubles - but before Christmas I had a bad migraine and it was after drinking one of those chardonnays which are a deep yellow in colour with quite a woody flavour.  Same thing last Thursday - so now if it's dark yellow I don't want to know!

Saturday night Bloss and I were going to go out for tea but ended up just staying home and having a lovely evening - just the two of us - sitting out on the deck having a couple of quiet ones.  I got a text from a friend asking if I wanted to do lunch on the Sunday - so I did and so we went to the Yacht Club in town - it was a beautiful day - and here's a picture of the view from our table.

Bloss and I decided to go out for tea Sunday night instead so we went up to the local pub and had a steak and salad - put $5 in the pokies and came home.

Tonight I've just been and had a fabulous revitalising facial - I had a voucher from Shaz for my birthday which I hadn't used  - gosh I adore a facial - I come out feeling so relaxed and my skin feels wonderful.

Weight - still haven't been as good as I should have but managed to get shot of another 200g last week - getting there - but still faffing around.  Think I might have to nominate February as an alcohol free month to get me moving along properly.  We'll see.

Hope all's well in all of your worlds
Love Z xx

A Day at the Races

I got an email from a friend Michelle mid morning Thursday saying 'we're going to the races on Saturday and it's also Deb's birthday - do you guys want to come too? So I emailed Bloss saying what do you think and he emailed back saying good idea (wonderful thing this email) and so we did!  Then I emailed Deb and said how dressy and she replied 'a dress and feathers'!  So then I had a quick dash into town on Thursday night to get a fascinator - of course before that I had to race home - try on a few outfits and decide what to wear so I could get the feathers to match. Mind you in a town the size of ours there's often not a lot of choice.  But I was in luck found a nice little black number which matched beautifully - I gave my wedding dress another airing - it's such a pretty colour and I think I've only managed to wear it another once since we got married.

All dressed up ready to go

The fascinator! - actually I love hats and was really disappointed that my DiL's mum didn't want to wear a hat at Grant and Tiff's wedding - as I would have loved to.

Bloss and I ready to go

I think Bloss has just worked out the winner of the next race

No idea what I was saying here

At the race track

With Michelle and Deb (the birthday girl) we had two people taking photos at the same time so weren't really sure which camera to look at.

After a week of almost non stop rain - but I'm not complainig as it was long overdue and has greened everything up beautifully - yesterday turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day - hot and sunny but with a lovely breeze.  We had a table of about 20 of us and took our own finger foods and generally had a ball  - we'd little table bets as well as the tote and the bookies.  I had one minor win - but overall made a donation for the day! but Bloss had one decent win so I think he probably came out a little bit in front.

I managed to drop 400g of the Christmas excess this week - although that was more by good luck than good management so I need to knuckle down this week and get back into it.  25 weeks tomorrow until Shaz and I are off to Italy and other parts.

We finalised the itinerary last week and have booked our flights  - here's the plan: (I need to transfer it to my sidebar)
Fly Brisbane to Dubai and have 5 days there with Shaz's daughter
then fly to Rome - two nights there, then pick up a 16 day tour which starts with 2 nights in Rome so overall in Rome for 4 nights.
The tour covers Pisa, Florence, Venice, an overnight ferry to Greece, then Tolon, Olympia, Athens then we board a 4 day cruise of the Greek Islands stopping off briefly at Patmos, Crete, Santorini, Mykonos then back to Athens then from there fly to Istanbul for a couple of nights then back to Brisbane via Dubai.
We leave on 5th July and get back on 31st July.  It will be awesome!

Bloss is considering a trip to the US to see his son and our 3 little grandsons there.  But the project he's involved in at work is going to reach top gear this year so he's not quite sure of the timing and when he'll fit holidays in yet.

Today - well I'm still in bed - it's almost 8am - but there's no rush!  Clive arrives back from Sydney sometime today - he was down there last week at the cricket and then yesterday was at a friends wedding in Bowral.  He's only here for I think one or maybe two nights and then is scheduled to fly to WA.  Grant, Tiff and the boys are coming down for tea tonight - will come early so the boys can have a swim.  I mentioned in my last post that I had bought a vest for Curtis - we thought we might have a bit of a fight on our hands getting him to wear it as he can be a real strop sometimes - but he put it on quite happily - saying he was going to a "wahoo poo party".  It's a Wahu brand and it turns out he'd seen an ad for the Wahu pool party range - amazing the power of advertising!  Anyway the current phrase in our household describing having a swim is 'let's go have a wahoo poo party'!!

And on that note I'll leave you - have a great week everyone.
Love Z xx

Welcome to Twenty Ten

Happy new year everyone and I hope you manage to realise at least one or two of your dreams this year.

We've had a lovely family Christmas with unfortunately too much to eat and drink but lots of lovely presents.  The proceedings started on Christmas Eve when we went to Grant and Tiffs for tea - she always has some sort of theme - Mexican, or Italian in the past and this year Chinese - some yummy Chinese dishes.  We had breakfast wtih a friend on Christmas morning then home for a bit of quiet time at home then Grant Tiff and the boys came down at night.  You may remember in my last post that I said that Clive had been flown home from WA because of the cyclone - he got word to go back a couple of days before Christmas but then at the last minute they said they didn't need him on that rota so he's still here - and how lovely to have him with us for Christmas.  We'd a friend round for tea on Boxing Night and had a hilarious night - we've got We Sing for the Wii (bit like Singsta) and she had Guitar Hero and with a little bit of alcoholic lubrication we were making a right old racket!!  We'd another two couple round on the Sunday night - so more eating drinking and socialising.

I was back at work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - actually pretty busy as we had some year end deadlines to meet.  Last night we went round to some friends for tea - we had a steam boat - gosh I just love that style of cooking.  Then just a few quiet drinks till midnight - a couple more then home - feeling good and no hangover this morning.

And now a few Christmas photos

We got Josh the Olympic Games for the Wii but I think the older kids had just as much fun!

Mother and son on We Sing - Lady GaGa - Poker Face!

I bought a little float jacket for Curtis and it's made a huge difference to his confidence in the pool.  This is him and Clive - he loves being thrown into the air and splashing into the pool.

This was a floating toy I got for Josh - but you can see how much enjoyment everyone was getting from it

Josh - just floating around

I think I told you that I had ordered my book which I called Serendipity - Central Europe - I'm delighted with it - can think of a couple of things I might do a little differently next time but overall very happy with how this first one turned out.

Here's how it looks on the outside

A view of the inside pages

Some of my beloved doors - a little bit of trivia - the blue door on the right hand page is the door of the church where I was married the first time round.

More doors and some of Bloss's lovely lampposts.

On a more serious note I've managed to add on 1.5 kgs over the Christmas week - like so many others - but got back to being sensible on Thursday and as everyone else is saying - it's a new day, new month, new year and even a new decade - with a holiday coming up in just over 6 months.  So let's get on with it!

Love Z xx