Sparkles and Spectacles

Well another week gone - it's now less then 10 weeks  till we leave on our trip so starting to think about what shows we want to see on the cruise and what excursions we want to do while in ports.  We can book them  online in advance - apparently preferable to make sure you get to do what you want.  So Bloss and I doing a bit of contemplating!

Weight - stayed the same - think I need to get tracking again - while I'm not being 'bad' there's no doubt I'm probably not being as 'good' as I should be - but I am now entering week 5 without alcohol and that's got to be a good thing.

I got my diamond pendant back yesterday - think I mentioned that I had bought another diamond from the wholesalers when they visited recently.  Below is how it turned out - I'm absolutely delighted with it - he set the actual diamond in white gold claws which makes it really stand out.  He actually is a chainmaker to trade and so made the chain from some gold that I had.  So a very happy customer!

Had a funny phone call on Wednesday night - the phone rang and it was Josh (grandson No 1) when I asked how he was he replied not too good. Below is a sort of a replay of the conversation

Me - Oh no what's wrong
J - I've done the wrong thing at school and made some bad choices and really disappointed Mum and Dad and part of my punishment is to tell my granadparents what I have done.
Me - so what happened?
J - I've not been eating my luch at school and throwing it away and I lied to Mum and Dad about it. 
(he sounds so sad and dejected at this point that I'm nearly in tears)
I start to say something and J says - "but there's more!"
I think OMG what else has he been up to
J - I'm not allowed to play any electronic games (which rules out the Wii, my laptop and my Iphone when he's here) and there's to be no treats (usually after tea when they're here they get a sweet treat each)
So then I launch into Granny mode and say
"Well I'm a bit disappointed in you too but you know everybody at some time makes bad choices but you know the important thing is that you realise it was a bad choice and you learn from it and don't make the same mistake again. - do you realise now it was a bad choice?
J - Oh yes (fervently)
Me - and will you make that mistake again
J - Oh no (even more emphatically)
Me - and I'm guessing that what upset Mum and Dad most was that you told lies, Mums and Dads don't like lies!
J- Yes
So then I think he's done enough penance and ask him how the weekend was - and he told me how well the footy had gone.  Then he said that his Dad wanted to speak to me.
Grant came on and apologised for dropping this on me - said he probably should have forewarned me but figured my granny skills would come to the fore anyway.  Turned out that Josh has been pushing the boundaries a bit lately (as most kids do around almost 10) and he'd had several warnings and fianlly it was time to follow through on the threats one of which was to 'fess up to his grandparents - although they let him off after me.  Apparently he'd been packing it before calling and had his speech all written down before ringing.  Anyway I'm sure another of life's lessons learned for him.  Tiff texted me later and said she'd almost been crying listening to him at the other end!!  Ah the joys of bringing up children.

Another topsy turvy week at work - I'm in charge of arranging the annual Service Awards Function at work - I've beenn chuntering along quite nicely with my plans but was struggling to get decisions on a couple of items - namely the extent of the invite list and the gift - which is only really a token (everyone gets a sizeable some of money on their anniversary date depending how many years they've been there) but causes so much controversy - you know some of the people some of the time!! and so much angst to the person doing the organising.  This is the first year I've organised this particular function.  I had most of the event organised and booked but was struggling without the above decisions.  I had a hissy fit with my manager about a week and a half ago and he turned up trumps and made both decisions - leave the guest list as it was - good idea with only 5 weeks to the event - and give everyone a gift voucher to Bunnings.  However this came out at the weekly managers meeting - which he wasn't at - and they got stuck into his deputy- didn't like the idea of a voucher.  Anyway after some discussion between my manager and me we agreed that the best plan was for me to have a one on one meeting with the GM and explain it all.  So I did - it went well and in one of my rare inspired moments I mentioned an idea I had about the gifts going forward.  He grabbed that like a drowning man - had a discussion with his Ops GM and the most vocal of the complaining managers and told me they absolutely loved the idea and could I make it happen this year - I had been putting this idea forward for next year.  This is when you realise the value of building strong networks - with four weeks to go - my local supplier has come up trumps and we should be good to go.  So of course now you want to know my idea - quite simple really.  Give a set of half a dozen glasses to the award recipients but make them different according to the number of years of service and no logos - no one uses glasses with logos!
So
10years - wine glasses
15 years - highball glasses
20 years - wine flutes
25 years - port glasses
30 years - whisky glasses
35 years - decanter
and the GM is going to up the value after 20 years and again after 25 years. And of course it makes my life so much simpler for future years. 

Anyway waffled on long enough today - hope I haven't bored the pants off you.  Hope you all have a brilliant week.

Love Zxx



The pendant with the hand made chain





You can just see the white gold claws



I love that it's a bit different

Unfortunately this shows my chest wrinkles!!

My new Osiris glases

I do love a bit of bling

The black and white shot

My second pair - Tommy Hilfiger - these are for distance only - they were actually my first choice but not deep enough to do graduated lenses unless I paid another $200 so I looked around and found the Osiris paid.

Steady Eddy

That's me - not setting the world on fire but just plodding along. Sorry haven't been around for a couple of weeks but I have been updating my total loss above - I lost 200g in Week 2 and another 600g last week - so 1.4kg in the three weeks. I'm still off the alcohol but also still not getting any proper exercise - the days just seem to be disappearing without trace at the moment.

Had a busy weekend just passed - my friend Ruth who also works for Rio has been up on site these two weeks on a project with her team and instead of going home with the rest of the team for the weekend she stayed with us and we did a power of catching up. Friday night we all went into a local club for tea and caught up with Shaz there too. Then Saturday Ruth, Shaz and I all went to Rockhampton for the day. I picked up my two pairs of new glasses - haven't got a pic yet - will need to save that pleasure for you! - and while I was sorting that out the other two went for a pedicure. Then we had a lovely lunch and a spot of shopping! Got a few really good bargains - a pair of off white shoes reduced from $89.99 to $22.40 - who could resist that. Another bargain was in Katies - a white shirt originally $39.99 now in the under $10 rack - with a further 25% off - so I got it for $7 - and you know you can never have too many white shirts. I also bought a couple of poncho style evening tops - too hard to describe - but non crush, light as a feather - so good travelling gear - and look fantastic over black pants and black cami top. I'll show you when I first wear them.

Yesterday Bloss, Ruthie and I went with our other friends Deb and Ian off on a drive to the Town of 1770 and Agnes Water - we had morning tea at 1770 and then came back to the pub at Agnes and ended up having lunch there then headed to Baffle Creek to the Golf Club there - but it was closed for renovations after the floods earlier this year, so we headed back towards home and called in at the Bororen pub for an ale there and finally got home around 5.30pm - it was a lovely day out with much fun and laughter. And I was such a good girl and stuck to soda water all day.

That the latest from me - hope all is well with all of you.

Back soon - love Z xx

Ruthie and I at dinner on Friday night

The three musketeers!

View of the bay at 1770

Another view at 1770

Ruth and I at the Agnes Water Hotel

Scary Stuff

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK : Abstinence makes the fat go faster!!! (and that's a Travelling Tart original)

Zanna

And it's all this girl's fault.  After spending a couple of days in the dog motel (kennels) while we were in Melbourne she came home Sunday full of beans and very happy to see us.  Monday night (my FB friends already know this story) about 6.30pm when Bloss was in the study and I was in the lounge pottering on my laptop and cooking tea, Zanna was doing her usual thing of deciding which of us she wanted to favour with her company - she has a mat in both rooms.  I was vaguely aware of her getting up and heading towards the study when suddenly just as she reached the top of the stairs her back legs just seemed to give way and she collapsed in a heap, lost control of her bladder and just lay there with her eyes open but totally out of it.  I was a gibbering idiot - trying to find the vet's phone number on my iphone with shaking hands and no glasses so couldn't see!!  Meanwhile Bloss is trying to mop up the water and talking to Zanna. I talked to the oncall vet and arranged to meet at her surgery.  By this time Zanna had at least lifted her head but made no attempt to get up.  We carried her down stairs in a blanket sling and as we put her into the back of the car she stood up - which was a great relief to see that her legs still worked.  When we got to the vet's she walked around Ok in the surgery and while she was far from her usual self, her vital signs all checked out OK other than her heart beating rather fast.  She slept by my bed that night and didn't move a muscle or make a sound - she seemed to be totally out of it.  Next day I took her to our own vet who did further checks and took some bloods.  The good news is that the results don't show any underlying reasons for her faint or seizure.  Our vet believes she has had some type of seizure but has no idea if/when it might re-occur so meantime we just monitor and continue to enjoy our lovely girl.  It's been a bit of a wake up call for us as although she has become quite grey round the muzzle, she's still very fit and lean and we'd kind of overlooked the fact that she's 10 1/2 now which equates to about 72 human years so is really quite an old lady now - especially for a large dog. Nola was great support and comfort to me during all this as she has had to cope with similar episodes with Harry - thanks Nola - your support was very much appreciated.  It took I'd say about 24 hours before she seemed to be back to her normal bouncy self and I'm delighted to say that she's been fine ever since.

Despite all these stressful times, I have left the alcohol alone this week and am pleased to report a loss of 600g - it was down a bit further before the weekend but I'll just report on what it is on a Sunday.  Some things to improve on - drink more water - with the weather being somewhat cooler I have to make much more of an effort to drink water so that's on this week's PIP (Performance Improvement Plan - an HR term) and I also need to get some more excercise - unfortunately life has been getting in the way but I'll keep trying.  I've put a ticker above - unfortunately it doesn't seem to cater for grammes and just rounds up or rounds down to the nearest kilo - the solution I guess is just to lose a kilo at a time!!

Other news - a busy week at work - month end is always a bit crazy but survived it OK.  Friday night we went round to Deb and Ian's for drinks (non alochol bubbles for me) - quite nice really and the kj count quite low.  Yesterday Deb's two sons were competing in a 4X4 comp on a large property about 60kms from here, so we went down for the afternoon and evening to watch - brilliant fun especially when you know someone who's competing.  Deb and Ian and the boys and their girlfriends camped overnight - we toyed with the idea but we haven't had our camper trailer out in ages and since it was all a bit last minute we opted to just drive down and back - but I reckon when the next comp is on in November we'll stay too.  Thinking also that next time we might take Josh - he would have loved watching the trucks clambering over piles of tyres, stacks of logs, going through water etc.

So that's this week - I've got a pot of chicken broth bubbling on the stove, and now I need to get something into the slow cooker ready for tea - Grant, Tiff and the boys are coming down as usual.  We're also thinking of going for lunch at the local Surf Club with Deb, Ian and Shelly and Pat but that will depend if Bloss manages to get the lawns mowed and the pool sorted first.

Hope you all have a brilliant week
Love Zanna xx

Cameron with his girlfiend Hannah as 'navvy' go down into the gully

Brandon and Zac getting ready to 'walk' the truck along a series of logs

Bloss and I at the 4X4 comp