And the barometer says 'Fair Weather'

The reference to the barometer above is because I am, always have been and always will be - a daily weigher.  I make no apologies for it.  For me it's like a barometer of how I'm going and how my body is doing.  I can honestly say that I don't get too hung up on the number but often it provides a warning that it's time to get back on track and other times a nice little drop gives my day a special start.  But this past ten days despite being spot on everyday that little barometer was stuck on just about the same setting every day - down 100g and up 100g.  However this morning it finally moved properly and I'm 400g down this week so feeling quite happy about that.  And here's my chart - managed a bit more excercise this week so that probably helped too.

Day	Water	WW Pts	Wii Fit/ Walk	Wine
1	2 ltrs	15.5	10m	None
2	2 ltrs	16	18m+20m	None
3	2 ltrs	13	20m+20m	None
4	2 ltrs	16	19m	None
5	2 ltrs	18	25m	None
6	2 ltrs	18.5	None	None
7	2 ltrs	17	Rest	None
Totals	14 ltrs	114/126	2h 12m	None

Yesterday Bloss and I decided to go for a bit of a drive and check out the Boyne Valley - that's an area upstream from the river our home fronts on to and between us and the Valley is a large dam.  It was enlarged to double it's size about 8 years ago just in time for the rainfall from Cyclone Benni but has never been anywhere like near to being full and most of us thought we'd never see it in our lifetime.  But the recent massive rainfall we've had has almost tipped it over the top.  So some photos below of our drive and the dam.

This is the view looking towards the spillway

As you can see it's pretty close to the top

Its capacity is 40 so very nearly there

Raining again in this photo - this is in the Boyne Valley and the edge of the dam - it now has a surface area of about 14,000 acres.

Zanna and I - she came for the drive

This is the Boyne river near its start

Then we headed over the range - here's Bloss and Zanna at the lookout area at the top of the range

Zanna having a poke around the area

A floodway on the other side of the range - water running over the road

On Saturday Shaz and I decided we'd go and check out a little boutique in a nearby town as I'd heard some good things about it.

Unfortunately they only get new stock in small lots since it's only a small shop and of course all the 12,14,16s go first so she had a lot of 10s and a lot of 18 pluses but not too much in the middle.  However I managed to find these two little snips

This skirt is quite beautiful with a handkerchief hemline - very fitted - so just as well my tummy is a lot flatter than a few months ago!

And this little chocolate brown cardi goes beautifully with it.  A bargain at just under $60 for both.

And that's the news from me possums - feeling all invigorated and ready for another on track week.  And as I said to someone else in Blogland - watch out for low flying Hot Cross Buns and Easter Eggs!!!

Happy Easter everyone

Love Zxx

Nothing Exciting

Sorry folks, bit late this week but I've nothing very exciting to say or report - only lost 100g this week - bit miffed at that but I'll just keep on doing what I'm doing and it will come right eventually.  Guess the important thing it that it's heading down rather than up.

Day	Water	WW Pts	Wii Fit/ Walk	Wine
1	2 ltrs	15.5	13m	None
2	2 ltrs	18	18m	None
3	2 ltrs	15	17m	None
4	2 ltrs	17.5	23m	None
5	2 ltrs	16.5	15m	None
6	2 ltrs	25	24m	None
7	2 ltrs	22	Rest	None
Totals	14 ltrs	128/126	1hr 50m	None

My manager is in Zonta - a women's service organisation and she took a table at a dinner they were holding and invited me and a couple of other work colleagues along - I was the only one from our team who actually went.  Anyway got my picture in the local freebie paper.

The builder comes next Thursday to do the toilet renovation - he's brought that forward as the damn thing has stopped working altogether - first it was the half flush button stopped working, then the other one had to be pressed on a certain angle and then it stopped completely so we have the top off and a pair of pliers on the window ledge and you have to pull up the little square doofer with the pliers to flush it!    Then he's back again on the 9th to do the bathroom.  Got all the bits and pieces bought and home now so hopefully all goes smoothly.

Can't think of anything else worth talking about so will update now and hope you're all having a good week.
Love Zxx

More trips!

All right - first things first.  I've actually been pretty miserable all week although I did get back to work on Wednesday.  I've just had an on and off nagging headache right up till yesterday - not enough to flatten me but enough to make it really hard to concentrate on anything and sometimes it would get quite bad during the night.  However I'm pleased to say it didn't affect my eating but did affect my exercise - I did a spell on the Wii on Wednesday morning then slept in Thursday and quite honestly just didn't feel like it till this morning - and I got back to it today.  This was the low week - I've noticed that so far this challenge I have a decent loss one week then a pretty small one the next and it's just been alternating like that.  Anyhow 200g off this week - so as long as it keeps heading in a downward direction I'm happy.  Here's my table:

Day	Water	WW Pts	Wii Fit/ Walk	Wine
1	2 ltrs	14.5	Sick	None
2	2 ltrs	18	Sick	None
3	2 ltrs	18	20m	None
4	2 ltrs	20.5	Slept in	None
5	2 ltrs	19	Sick	None
6	2 ltrs	15.5	Sick	None
7	2 ltrs	16	Sick	None
Totals	14 ltrs	121.5/126	20m	None

As I've told you we're all set to renovate our bathroom and toilet upstairs, so been busy getting all the fixtures and fittings together.  Here's a picture of the vanity we ended up getting - it got delivered today so is currently sitting downstairs in the carport.

The wall tiles will be white - like this - with the wavy effect on them which you might just see and they're 200 x 300mm and we'll put them vertically in the shower but horizontally round the rest of the room.  (won't be having the red mosaics - they just happened to be in the picture)

Then we'll have a feature strip vertically in the shower and a few bits here and there round the rest of the walls - will leave their placement to the tiler.  This shows a section of the glass tiles we've chosen

The floor tiles are 200 x 200 off white with a grey tone - so keeping it all very neutral which means I can dress it up and change the look with mats and towels.  Think I'll be going for red first.

Now here's what my title is all about.  I'd been discussing with Bloss that Mum wasn't getting any younger - 78 in January - and that I wanted to try and get as many trips in as I could while we can still have fun together - go shopping, out to lunch etc.  And he bless him said yes you should try and get a trip in - so I asked my wonderful travel agent to keep an eye out for any specials which might come up around Christmas - that way I can incorporate public holidays and not have to use of so much of my precious leave.  Anyway Saturday morning, just as I was about to leave for town, an email pops up from Mark, my travel agent  (who doesn't actually work on Saturdays) to tell me that Lufthansa had a brilliant special but it was only valid for Saturday and Sunday.  I fired back an email giving him some dates and told him I was heading to town but he could call me on my mobile.  Shortly after I had to pull over to take his call.  He couldn't get my first choice and we did a bit of mucking around trying to get it all to line up - some days I could get to Frankfurt but not through to Edinburgh, other days I could get from Singapore to Frankfurt but not from Brisbane to Singapore.  However we managed to sort out a plan eventually - I leave here on Christmas night at 6pm (works OK as I get to spend the day with Bloss and the kids) then leave Brisbane at 1am and arrive in Frankfurt at 6.45pm on Boxing night - but then it's too late for a flight to Edinburgh so I'll stay in the Mercure Airport hotel and fly to Edinburgh the next day - getting there at 1pm. Not a bad option - cost me an extra $100 including breakfast but I'll be able to have a nice rest, shower, change and arrive there 'brand new out the box'.  Then I do the return trip again on 14th January, which gives me almost 3 weeks in Scotland.

I quickly called my sister on Saturday night to check that everyone was going to be around at Christmas - would hate to have booked and paid which I had to do immediately, then find out they'd made other plans.  But all good.  So yesterday was Mothers Day in UK so I phoned Mum (early morning her time) and wished her happy Mothers Day and said that I had organised a wee present for her but that it wouldn't arrive until the 27th December.  Her mind was working overtime trying to work out what it could be when I told her that it was ME!  She was speechless - and that doesn't happen often - but absolutely over the moon.

So I'm just about out of my tree with excitement at all these wonderful things happening over the coming months and just to be totally extravagant - I took my diamond to the jewellers and he's making my ring up - will be about 5 weeks before I get it though as he's got a lot on.  But I can wait.

So lots of incentive for me to keep going on my challenge - although right now I don't need any - as I said the other day to Chris at Diet Coke Rocks - I find that once you start getting a few decent losses happening it almost becomes self propelling - you just want to keep on taking off - it feels so good.  I've been measuring myself once a month since I got back from my last year's Europe trip and my total cms lost as of Saturday is 38.5cm so pretty rapt about that.

Right then that's the latest from the Tart - hope you're all having a good week.
Love Z xx

From my sick bed

I'm home sick today - have had a niggling sore throat and accompanying headache on and off all week but by this morning my head was pounding and my throat really sore so I'm having a day in bed to see if I can send whatever nasty it is, off on it's merry way.

Lost 700g this week so very happy with that - bringing my total since the start of the 12 week challenge to 3.2kgs.  My aim for the challenge is to lose 6kgs so that's me past the halfway mark at the end of Week 5 so feeling very positive about that. And here's my little table

Day	Water	WW Pts	Wii Fit/ Walk	Wine
1	2 ltrs	18	19m	None
2	2 ltrs	15.5	0m	None
3	2 ltrs	20.5	11m	None
4	2 ltrs	19	15m	None
5	2 ltrs	18	18m	None
6	2 ltrs	15.5	15m	None
7	2 ltrs	18	Rest	None
Totals	14 ltrs	124.5/126	1hr 18m	None

Otherwise it's been a fairly quiet week.  I didn't manage any Wii time on Tuesday as my car was going in to have a scrape on the bumper repaired and I had to be in town early to drop it off and get a lift to work with Grant.  Having no car also meant I couldn't do my usual two days at the other site so that cut down my walking time and it's still so flaming wet here that ordinary walking is no fun.  We're always screaming for rain in this part of the world but our prayers have been answered with a vengeance so far this year.  And of course now that we've got it - we're over it!

Had a flying visit from Clive this week - he was in Melbourne organising a building project he's got happening on one of this houses there, so he flew into town on Thursday night, popped down for half an hour to pick up some paper work he needed to take back to Perth with him, then headed back to Grant and Tiff's - stayed there overnight then flew out again on the first flight Friday back to Perth.  But lovely to see him anyway.

Spent Saturday checking out bathroom vanities, toilets, and floor and wall tiles then took Bloss with me yesterday morning where we did a final selection of the tiles and ordered them. Our builder has booked us in for two to three weeks time - to allow the tiles etc to get here.  Last piece in the the puzzle to sort out is the vanity - the current one is the standard 900mm wide but the gap is actually 1100m and so there is always this silly little gap you can't do anything with between the vanity and the bath.  Anyway have found a vanity which is 1050mm and  then the lady in the shop mentioned that one supplier did an 1100mm one - so did a measure to make sure a 1100mm would fit and we're heading in there tonight - hopefully I'll feel up to it - so we can order it.

Made our final payment for Shaz and I's trip on Friday - so only 17 weeks to go!!  Lots of nice things on sale at the moment for the end of summer to been picking up a bargain or two - then just popping them into the suitcase - of course when it comes to packing then I have to be a bit more ruthless and weed out what I'm actually taking - have to think about a bit of colour coordination and mix and match otherwise I'll be paying for excess baggage! and that's before the shopping starts!!

Ok possums - got nothing else of note to say except have a great week everyone.
Take care
Zxx

Challenges, Diamonds and Sunburnt Legs

A big week this week - and a few things to share.  But first of all the challenge update - another good week - thats me been off alcohol for the entire month of February and I've kept faithfully to the other Ws for the whole four weeks too. And the result is a loss of 200g  this week. I've now lost 5kgs since our trip to Europe and 2.5kgs since the start of the challenge and I'm still feeling really focussed so hope to get a few more off before the end of the challenge and then if I'm going well continue on till we leave for Europe again.

Day	Water	WW Pts	Wii Fit/ Walk	Wine
1	2 ltrs	17	17m	None
2	2 ltrs	20	13+20m	None
3	2 ltrs	15	21+20m	None
4	2 ltrs	16	13m	None
5	2 ltrs	18.5	17m	None
6	2 ltrs	14.5	19m	None
7	2 ltrs	18	Rest	None
Totals	14 ltrs	119/126	2hr 20m	Zero

And now on to the exciting stuff.  As an employee of Rio Tinto we get the opportunity to buy diamonds at wholesale price - the option is there at any time but every couple of years a team come round the sites and display a selection of diamonds as well as some made up into jewellery. I've never followed up in the past as I always thought they'd still be very expensive.  But then on Wednesday I was talking to someone who had bought some and the prices weren't too bad at all.  So on Thursday I made an appointment and went along and had a look  And surprise, surprise I bought one.  Here it is below - it's a round brilliant cut champagne diamond - I've always liked them - especially the lighter coloured ones.  It's not a monster but it is 0.6 carat so a reasonable sparkler and it does sparkle beautifully.  Next step is to go see a local jeweller and get it made into a ring.

It's actually a bit lighter than this but takes on the colours of what's around - in this case the black chair.

This one shows it in the box so gives a bit of an idea of size.

This is the setting that I'm favouring at the moment but will see what the jeweller says

I had the two boys staying for the weekend as Tiff was at a Hen's weekend on the Gold Coast and Grant went to the ACDC concert in Brisbane then they both flew back together last night.  We had a lovely time -went and checked out the local dam which is at it's highest level ever after all the recent rain, baked a chocolate cake for Bloss's birthday which was Saturday, then Sunday took Josh to the Little Athletics Multi Event Carnival.  I smothered them with sunscreen then as we were pushed for time took off to the carnival.  Curtis and I placed our chairs under a nice shady tree and settled down for the next few hours.  It was very muggy and the mozzies were woeful.  What I didn't realise was that despite being in the shade I was being very severely sunburned.  My shins and ankles and both arms are badly burned and I mean burned rather than just a bit pink.  So I'm sitting here tonight with my feet up as my legs are quite swollen and incredibly tender.  Lesson to all - just because you're in the shade don't think you won't get burnt!!!

Curtis licking the bowl after making the chocolate cake

We've been gradually working round the house getting various areas upgraded and renovated and the next project is the upstairs bathroom and toilet.  But it's incredibly difficult to find tradesmen round here who want to take on a smallish job since there's such a building boom on at the moment.  However one of the girls I work with found a guy who specialises in smaller jobs so I contacted him and got a quote and we're going ahead.  I've just spoken to him tonight to tell him we'll go ahead and also asked him if he can custom make the vanity rather than putting in a standard 900mm one - which leaves a 200mm gap between the vanity and the bath - a space which is a pain in the neck.  So he's getting back to me tomorrow with a price for that and then hopefully we can lock in a date - he reckons it will be within the next few weeks and will take about 12 days from start to finish.  So now I need to leap into action and choose and buy the wall and floor tiles, as well as organise the new toilet and cistern, shower base and taps.  Ooh it's all quite exciting!

So a busy week for the Travelling Tart - but I like them that way.  Hope everyone out there is staying focussed and achieving whatever goals you've set yourselves.

Take care

Zxx