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