The Tart who Travels

Action Packed

2012-01-22T14:19:00.067+10:00

Yes this weekend has certainly had so much crammed into it - I'm absolutely exhausted and it's back to work tomorrow - going to be a long busy week!

Weight first - I've been a good girl still and managed to get rid of another 700g this week so that puts a smile on my face!! Keep on pedalling!

Well I don't know where to start there's been so much happening chez Zanna. I'll back track to mid last week when I was formally offered the Recruitment Advisor position which since I'd already given a lot of thought, I was able to accept on the spot. Instant assumption of the accountabilities plus handover a heap of my previous stuff to our new graduate - a delightful young man who is I think a pretty smart cookie but nonetheless - as well as needing to get his head round the work conceptually has had no previous experience of that wonderful software system called SAP so has had a pretty steep learning curve this week. I thought it was quite special that he sent me an invite to be his Facebook friend which I accepted, then on Friday evening posted a message on my wall thanking me for all my help this week and for making him feel so welcome.

So half day Friday - although I had a training course to attend for another software system being introduced for contractor management - and I look after supplementary labour on site so needed to know how this would interface with me - so instead of finishing at 11 as I should I was there till about 12.15.

So home, quick change and then off to the dentist for an appointment with the hygenist -have a bit of trouble with my gums so go every 3 months for a scale and polish. Left there and went off looking at bedroom suites - we currently have a queen size ensemble which is past it's best and we had decided we'd go kingsize this time but I was thinking about having a mattress in a frame rather than an ensemble. Got a couple of prices then headed for Harvey Norman to see what they had available. Sign out the front said 60 per cent off mattresses. So I engaged the young man in a bit of conversation - probably not the sharpest pencil in the box but very obliging and eager to please. I spotted a bit of a special going on a Sleepmaker ensemble and asked about the price for just the mattress - wouldn't get the benefit of the special $1599 for a queensize ensemble and wait for it $1099 for a kingsize ensemble. I asked how come a kingsize was cheaper than a queensize - dropped jaw and oops someone has made a boo boo. Raced off to see the manager but agreed that I had the right to buy it at the advertised price. So ... long story short - I bought a kingsize ensemble for $1099 which has a normal retail of $3299!!! Was that a bargain or what! Could take up to 6 weeks to get it - but I can live with that.

Saturday - I had decided to get up early and head for Rockhampton to see if I could find an outfit suitable for the wedding. It was kind of an off chance as I had booked flights via frequent flyer to go to Brisbane next weekend to get an outfit but thought I should just check out Rocky first in case I could find something.,

So I headed off to Rocky - went to Stewarts first -found a dress that was .... pretty good - but wasn't absolutely certain so got them to put a hold on it while I checked out a few other places. Went to a few other shops - nothing doing .... then wandered into Noni B - cased the joint and was just about to leave when I spotted a short rail with a few after five type outfits on - and there was this dress....... Tried it on and the rest is history. Fitted perfectly - and still will if I lose a few more kilos. So bought it and headed to Suna - a shop where thet have all sorts of shoes and bags - and I got both to match with the outfit perfectly. Back to Noni B to get a necklace and earrings which just finish it off - and I'm set!!! A few pics below - I look kind of ordinary - flat hair, no makeup and the nails both hands and feet definitely dont match but you'll get the drift.

So finally back home late Saturday -got Indian take away on the way through Gladstone as I was too tired to think about cookingl.

Today - well can't remember if I've mentioned that we're getting the three upstairs bedrooms renovated - -paint job,new carpet and a total re-arrange of the furniture. The painter arrives on Tuesday this week so needed to get most of the furniture out - curtains down etc ready for him to start. Our desks in the study have posed the biggest challenge so Bloss was busy working on that most of Saturday. So today - a clean of the drawers of some of the furniture and a move downstairs for us till the work is all complete. I reckon that conservatively I have climbed up and down those stairs at least 150 times today so feeling quite virtuous. Also did a bit of a wardrobe cull and filled two and half bin bags for the local charity and dropped them off.

Tonight we met Grant Tiff and the boys at the local pub for tea to have a pre-celebration of Grant's birthday which is on Tuesday - 33 - OMG how did I get to have a son that old! So first day of school tomorrow - Josh into Year 6 and Curtis Year 1 - another exciting year begins.

So a couple of photos below of the outfit:

Hanging one the back of the door

With bag and shoes

The shoes

Me with it all on - but no makeup, flat hair and a sadsack expression on my face

My delightful family - Josh, Tiff, Curtis and the about to be 33 year old Grant

Love Zxx

Birthdays Galore

2012-01-15T10:16:00.000+10:00

That's definitely the case for January - it started on 9th with Deb's, then 11th was my Mum, 13th was Tiff (my DiL) and today 15th is the wonderful Shaz. I have a short break then it's Grant's on the 24th. It's not just the effect on my pocket but the challenge of trying to choose presents for them all. But I've conquered them all apart from Grant - and Tiff is usually good for a few suggestions.

Well if you have a look at my little pedalling lady at the top you'll see that I've had a good week and dropped 1.1kgs so feeling very focussed and positive.

I don't actually have a real lot to say today - after all it was only 4 days ago that I last posted. So work busy busy - especially when you've had two days leave and a day off site - you arrive on Thursday to 125 emails in my inbox! I was wondering when my next hairdressing appointment was as I didn't seem to have noted it on my Iphone and I kept meaning to text her to find out - but since I don't have mobile reception in my office and I have to don safety glasses and go outside to get it I hadn't got round to it. I got home on Friday - my half day and started in to the massive pile of washing we had after our weekend away. One of the problems with Merlin the marvellous is that he delights in pulling washing off the line so I have to do it and hang it out while we're home and bring him up on to the deck. Anyway I digress - I got the washing on, had some lunch - and then a little nap in the chair and then remembered I was going to text Rob - I picked up my phone and there was a text from her asking why I hadn't turned up at 12 for my appointment. Dohhh!!! She is so good to me and was able to fit me in on Saturday morning instead - so I've had a bit of a trim, had my regrowth done and just for a change as well as blonde foils, have had a few copper ones blended in there too. And like the result!

We're having new carpet laid in the three upstairs bedrooms and having them painted as well, so yesterday afternoon I piled all the furniture on the bed in the middle of the spare bedroom in preparation - the painter is coming in the next couple of weeks. Our bedroom won't be too difficult but the study will be a different story since we have two large desks in there which were erected in situ so it's going to be a bit of a challenge getting that room emptied for the carpet to be laid.

Yesteday Deb texted me saying that one of her sons had caught a heap of mudcrabs and did we want to go round there for tea. It's ironic that both her boys love crabbing but neither of them eat crab. So we feasted on mudcrab with some fresh crusty bread washed down with Moet!! How decadent. Deb had a bottle which we hadn't found the opportunity to drink on the birthday trip and I had a bottle we'd been given by the friend who stayed in our house back when we went to the US. So why just have one bottle when you can have two - and we did!

Well for someone who didn't have a lot to say I've managed to waffle on quite a bit.

For those of you who asked about the dress - this was the dress I chose - but had it made in tea length.
But what you don't see in this pic is that the lace has sequins and also interwoven with silver thread. In the green it was just too much. Also the way it has been made makes it very heavy - the bodice has a double lining of satin and it's boned - not something I need and the chiffon skirt is also double lined - no idea why but it makes it really heavy. I've included a couple of pics of the dress I received - the colour doesn't look too bad in the photo but in reality it's really quite lime in colour. The second one shows just how ornate the lace is.

Add caption

Ok must be off and do some food shopping - kids coming for tea tonight and the cupboards seem to be quite bare! Last day I think of obedience training for Merlin today. Have a great week everyone

Love Zxx

Frolics on Fraser

2012-01-10T19:07:00.085+10:00

So my first week of being back on a very defined track went really well. However we had a few days away planned to celebrate my friend Deb's 50th birthday. I went with the intention of not having any alcohol at all. Silly girl! I got through the first night till our meal was served then I weakened and had two glasses of wine. But after that I had beer and wine over the next few days. But on the plus side I had heaps of exercise and I was pretty careful with what I ate. We got back late this afternoon so the moment of reckoning will be when I step on the scales tomorrow morning. I'll add a tailender to this before I publish telling you how I went.

On Friday - we both now only work half a day - I finish at 11am and Bloss at 12 - we had a new day work roster introduced and so I now start at 6am and finish at 3.15pm and knock off at 11 on a Friday - would be better to have a full day off every second week - but that wasn't up for grabs so I'll settle for this meantime. Anyway I raced in and took Merlin to the kennels and then home, grabbed some lunch and we took off for Hervey Bay - about a 3 hours drive south of us - still on the coast. We caught up with Deb and Ian on the journey and followed each other down to the unit we had booked. This whole trip was to celebrate Deb's 50th. There were 3 couples sharing a unit at this really nice apartment block - I think we got the penthouse - it was fabulous. Anyway we had a few drinks on our massive deck. We were joined by another couple of friends of Deb's who couldn't make it for the rest of the weekend but had driven up from the Gold Coast and Brisbane to join us for dinner. A great night with many laughs.

Saturday morning we caught the ferry across to Fraser Island - about 45 mins and we were staying at Kingfisher Bay resort. There were 11 of us in the party - Bloss and I, Deb, Ian and Deb's two sons with their girlfriends and Nola and Lex and their daughter. Deb and Nola each had booked an apartment - Deb with 3 bedrooms and Nola a two bedroom whereas Bloss and I were in a hotel room - but all on the same resort. But the resort is massive and very hilly. Bloss and I were on the flat but every time we wanted to catch up with the other we had a good 10 minute walk - much of it up a very steep hill. Saturday afternoon we lounged around the pool and generally explored what the resort had to offer then got together for BBQ tea. Sunday we took off in two 4WDs and explored some of the island - you can only drive around in a 4WD and some of the tracks are quite hairy - so we had lots of bumps and laughter. We visited two different fresh water lakes and had a swim in them - fabulous. Wraps for tea that night. Monday was Deb's birthday so we all met for breakfast and she got some of her pressies then but we decided to keep spinning out her birthday so I held on to our gift. Then we took off exploring again - this time to Lake Wabby - this is a lake which is surrounded by sand dunes. It was a 3km hike to get there - down hill most of the way then at the very end - a very steep climb up a sand dune then down the other side to the lake. And the walk back was a real challenge - back up that same dune - which was bloody hot underfoot then a steady climb back up to the lookout and back to where the car was parked. We had a swim in the lake and then opened a bottle of champagne and toasted Deb whilst sitting in the water! That was when I gave her our gift - a matching set of pedant and earrings in silver with pink pearls. And I'm thrilled to say she liked it. Headed back to the resort - and a nanny nap then down to the pool for a swim and a cocktail. Home to get dressed up and back for dinner in one of the resort restaurants. We didn't last long after that as it had been a huge day and we were all shattered.

Today we came back from the island on the 10.30am ferry and then headed back home, went via the kennels to get Merlin and then home - with a mound of washing!!!

The dress had arrived while were gone. Well what can I say - it's beautifully made - a bit on the tight side - but if I lose a few kilos would be OK. But that's not the problem - whilst in some lights it might look like sage green to me it's lime green and so not the shade I was looking for. But I think the worst thing is the lace - I thought it was just a plain lace - but it actually has sequins and silver threads which is just far too ornate for me. In addition the jacket is miles too small - measure two inches side to side smaller than the dress! and is lined whereas I asked for unlined. I've been communicating with the site and they would make me the jacket I ordered FOC but it would be a waste of time - I don't like the look - it's got that very ornate Asian look - which looks fabulous on Asian ladies but is just not what I'm after for Clive and Jo's wedding. So I'll chalk it up to experience and instead do the sensible thing - find a dress - know exactly what it looks like, try it on and know that it fits! Ce'st la vie - it could have been fabulous - but it isn't! I'm not going to complain or cry about it - I always knew it was a gamble.

Now the photos :

Deb (the birthday girl) and I at dinner on Friday night

Bloss and I at dinner on Friday night

Our little deck out the front of our room at the resort

The view from the boardwalk as we walked from our room to the main part of the resort

Wildlife galore

Bloss and I at Lake McKenzie

The beach on the ocean side of the island

Part of a shipwreck - the Maheno - love the textures in this

Me beside the Maheno

This is the view from the lookout at Lake Wabbyn- can you see that little person on the left hand side of the beach - well that's roughly where we were headed for

Bloss and I with Deb and Ian on the night of her birthday

Bloss and I strutting our stuff

Me just outside our room

Me on the shores of Lake McKenzie

Bouncing along the beach - check my wonderful hairdo!

On the beach with Bloss and Ian

Deb and I peeking through a porthole on the wreck of the Maheno

Me halfway down the sand dune on the way to Lake Wabby

The present giving ceremony at Lake Wabby

OK it's Wednesday morning now - did the scale jump - 500g off (that's in 10 days)- on Friday last week I was over a kilo down so hopefully it will drop down again in the next couple of days as I get back on track proper. Off to work now - am off to coordinate a recruitment assessment centre - riding shotgun today but need to take it all in as if I take on the Recruitment Adviser role - it'll be me in the driver's seat next month.

Have a great week everyone.

Love Z xx

Time to get serious

2012-01-01T17:56:00.000+10:00

Och I know -you've all given up on me and decided that I have defected to Face Book - and that's partially true. However I have been reading your blogs whenever I get a minute and occasionally commenting but I just haven't had my sh?t together to settle down and lose weight properly or to blog regularly.

So what's the goss - well that 1.6kg I was down last post has been reduced to only 700g down. I managed to get 2.5 off at one stage then faffed around again and then of course there's been Christmas but on the plus side I'm still lighter than when I came back from holiday.

But the pressure is now on - Clive gets married in about 14 weeks and I really want to lose 5 or 6 kilos before then. So today marked day 1 of a 12 week challenge. I've done it before and I can do it again - I just have to have the right mindset and I think I've finally got it. Not going to do anything unusual - just count points, cut out the alcohol and up the exercise. I'll make myself a nice wee record on the sidebar to keep me honest.

So what else has been happening.

Work - still really busy. We've had a few changes - the major one being that Rio Tinto has decided to divest a group of companies - one of which is ours. It's not making much difference to us right now - still business as usual. But it will mean that we'll do our own recruitment rather then it being done by a centralised team. Both my immediate leader and my manager have suggested I take over one of the Recruitment Adviser roles as they feel I would be really good in that position so I'm giving it serious consideration and may well move to recruitment later this month.

Family - Grant, Tiff and boys all really well - hard to believe that Josh is going into Year 6 and Curtis into Year 1 after the holidays. Since I last posted we went down to Melbourne to Clive and Jo's engagement party and housewarming - it was a great night and they are so happy together. Clive finished up in Korea just before Christmas. He has a break of 6 or 8 weeks while they float the rig from Korea down to off the coast of WA. After that he'll do fly in fly out of Melbourne to Karratha in WA - two weeks on/two off. The wedding is all organised for 14th April - will be at Peppers Moonah Links Resort which is on the Mornington peninsula. And the really exciting news is that my mum and sister are coming over for the wedding. They arrive to us on 25th March then the week of the wedding we all fly down to Melbourne - overnight there then we've rented a house in MacCrae for five nights which will accommodate Bloss and I, Mum and Linda as well as Grant Tiff and the boys. After the wedding they come back to Queensland with us and are here till the 30th April.

Friends - Our friend Deb turns 50 next week and so a group of family and friends are going over to Fraser Island for a few nights - we'll drive down to Harvey Bay on Friday, stay there one night then over to Fraser on the ferry on the Saturday and stay there till Tuesday. Will be a lovely wee break.

Merlin - has settled in so well - took a bit of work in the first few weeks till he realised that I was alpha dog - not him! But these past two or three weeks it all seems to have come together and he's responding and behaving beautifully. We of course are going to dog obedience classes which are so well worth the effort. I'm walking him twice a day so if I start eating properly that should help bring the kilos down too.

Mother of the Groom dress - I've order one online - supposedly from the US - but then I discover that it's actually a bit of a scam that it's in the US - it's actually China. However as well as bad press about them being in China there's also some really good reviews from satisfied and happy customers. Anyway I've ordered the dress - provided all the measurements and the latest email from them says it was shipped last week. So fingers crossed it works out. It was incredibly cheap - only $150 all up including postage. My thinking is that worst case scenario I'll still have to make a trip to Brisbane to buy something which will cost me an awful lot more and I'll have lost $150. But I'm an optimist so hoping that I'm just about to receive the bargain of my life. Watch this space.

King of the deck

At the beach

Having fun at the beach

Wishing you all - if anybody is still reading - the very best for 2012 and I hope it's a year filled with wondrous things for you.

Take care
Zanna xx

Back in the Harness

2011-10-06T19:22:00.000+10:00

Yep the tart's latest trip is over - and what another fabulous one it was. As I said I haven't posted any of the photos or stories on here but if you flip across to the left hand sidebar you can see the link to Travel Pod and if you click on there you can check out how much fun we had.

So we got back on Sunday and Monday was the day of reckoning to see how much I had gained in the four weeks away. My stomach and spare tyre felt considerably increased and I was ready for a major shock - however it actually wasn't as bad as I had thought - I'd gained 2.6kgs over the four weeks and considering there was a lot of alcohol consumed and some incredible food savoured - particularly on the cruise - I was reasonably happy with that. I guess we did do a fair bit of walking which provided some damage limitation.

I knuckled down straight away on Monday - back on the WW plan - counting points, lots of water and no alcohol. I feel much better already and by this morning had lost 1.6kgs of the 2.6 - so feeling much better already. But I need to maintain the effort - Clive and Jo get married in April and I want to be feeling really good about myself by then - which requires a good few kilos off. However I do believe I'm finally in the right headspace - after all those months before we went on holiday when I could have been doing clever things but I just couldn't get it together! C'est la vie!

We're driving to Brisbane tomorrow afternoon and staying overnight in our DinL's parents unit and will pick up Merlin - our new four legged friend and bring him home on Saturday. So there's another weightloss accessory - one young active large dog who will require lots of excercise - that'll get me out pounding the pavements again - not before time!

I've been talking to his carer a few times this week - he sounds fantastic but I think will be quite a challenge until he settles down a bit. He had a very restricted and neglected puppyhood - no toys, no bed, tied up in a square backyard with no walks so now although he's 14 months he's revelling in doing all the things he missed out doing as a puppy. Anyway watch out for a plethora of photos of our new family member.

On Monday night we were at Grant and Tiff's for tea as it was Josh's birthday - 10! Can't believe it's 10 years since that special lad came into our lives.

Not that much else in the way of news. To my delight our local Woolworths introduced online shopping. I've waited soooo long for this to become available. Food shopping is one of my pet hates - along with housework and ironing. I was obviously meant to be one of the aristocracy!! Anyway placed an order on Tuesday and it was delivered last night around 7.30pm. Absolutely wonderful - the lovely man didn't just bring it to the front door but all the way up the stairs and on to the kitchen benches. I can see the start of a beautiful relationship between him and I - lol.

So I think that's the latest from the Tart - I'll be back soon - I need my 'blends' to help me stay focussed and get back to where I want to be.

Hope you're all having a good week
Love Z xx

Josh carrying in his cake

Posing for a pic

Only a few days more

2011-08-30T06:28:00.000+10:00

Sorry guys - it's been a pretty poor show on here lately - and it's not going to improve I'm afraid. But.... there is a consolation prize - I have started a travel blog and I've posted a few pre trip entries there and I will be updating it regularly as we travel with stories and pictures.

The main reason for the other blog is that whilst I'm not private on this blog I haven't told any family or friends of it's existence. Many of them know that I'm a blogger but no-one has asked for details of my blog and I haven't volunteered and I'd like to keep it that way. However many people want to know more about our travels and in the past I've updated here and Facebook and via email. With Travelpod I can update once and it goes everywhere and sends notifications to my specified contact list and also posts to my status on Facebook that I've updated it. So if you click on the link at the top right of my blog it will take you to Travelpod or if you want to receive an email notification then just leave me your email as a comment and I'll add you to my list.

So only a few more days till we're off - and I'm working right up to the last gasp so busily trying to get everything all sorted. Think I'm almost there - hairdresser tonight and beautician on Thursday night, cases virtually packed, house sorted out and trying to do a handover for work. But by Saturday around 7am I'll be on that plane and I'll be focussing on nothing else but having another wonderful holiday. I need to rush off to work now.

Take care my lovelies
Love Z xx

So much happening!

2011-08-07T09:38:00.008+10:00

Sorry my 'blends' - life has been fun and crazy lately and my blog has been sadly neglected. Fortunately many of you also know me on Facebook so have been able to keep up with me there. I see it's almost a month since I last posted but it's been a good month with many wonderful things happening.

Big news No 1 - I got a call from Clive on Wednesday 27 July - he was back in Oz and in Melbourne with Jo - they went up to the snow for a couple of days then were heading up to see us for the weekend. I had already had a couple of conversations with him since he arrived back the previous Saturday and was wondering why he was ringing me at 4pm on my way home from work. Well he was ringing me to tell me that he and Jo had just got engaged. You should have heard me squealing with delight - I was driving home so this was all taking place via bluetooth on my car speakers - hilarious. Anyway one very happy and delighted Maw here. They came up to us on the Friday and stayed till Monday so we got the chance to get to know Jo a bit better. Think she's just great and they seem so relaxed and happy together. Clive headed back to Korea again last night for a 10 week stint this time. By the time he gets back the two townhouses he's been building in Melbourne will be ready for occupation - he's renting one and they'll live in the other and so they plan to have a housewarming/engagement party - that'll be towards the end of October. They're planning to get married next Easter but still in the throes of sorting out venues etc. So terribly exciting.

The rock - I asked what colour gold the band was as I couldn't see past the diamond!!

The happy couple

On the shores of the river when we went for breakfast last Sunday morning

Big news No 2 - we're going to have another new family member after we get back from our trip. I've been browsing around the animal rescue pages to see who was in need of our love and who looked like they were meant to be ours. Last Friday I spotted this lovely fellow who seemed to touch a chord - his eyes reminded me so much of our wonderful Zanna. But of course we'd decided that we wouldn't get another dog until after our trip - would be unfair to bring a dog home for a month then put it in the kennels for 5 weeks while we're gone. However I emailed the shelter to say that we really liked the look of this guy, explained that we were going away but if he was still around when we got back we'd definitely be interested. The lady from the shelter replied and agreed that it made sense to wait and that if he wasn't available there would certainly be other K9s in need of our love. All good. Then a couple of days later she emailed me again and asked me to ring her. I did and we had a long chat and she said that there was always the possibility of adopting him now but leaving him with his carer - all their dogs are fostered - until we got back but she said that she'd obviously have to check with the carer first. I said I'd discuss it with Bloss. The carer is in Brisbane and the problem was finding time to go and meet him in the next couple of weekends before we go - a trip to Brissy takes out a whole weekend. Then thought a bit more and realised that it was a long way to go for a 10 minute meeting which wouldn't tell me much more about him. So after further discussion with Bloss - he's so wonderful and long suffering and puts up with my 'everything needs to happen now' approach to life!! He was saying why the rush and I've got my long face on and he says - you really like this dog don't you - yes I do but even so it would depend on whether or not the shelter agree to out proposal and whether the carer can keep him for another 9 weeks. Anyway put the proposal to the shelter and she said she'd check with the carer and get back to me. This took from Wednesday night to Friday afternoon and then I got an email saying the carer would keep him and that I should ring her and have a chat. I did - she was a delightful Kiwi lady (Belinda) - aren't they all - from Nelson (about 20 years ago) and after talking to her I'm even more convinced that he's the lad for us. So now some photos

Introducing Merlin :

How could you resist that face - he's 12 months old.

Belinda says he learns really quite quickly

I think he'll be a bit bigger than Zanna

HIs history is that he wasn't abused but was quite neglected - only fed scraps I think and so was painfully thin when Belinda got him 2 months ago

So he will certainly make our holiday coming to an end a lot easier to bear!

Other news - weight loss is crap - not gaining but just not losing - I go well for a few days then something happens and I lose my focus. I'm annoyed with myself for not knuckling down and losing a few kilos but even so I'm just not getting in the groove. However with a young dog to train and walk and a wedding early next year that should make me get my act together when we get back from holidays.

Less than four weeks now till we're off - excitement levels mounting! Now must be off and do some food shopping, try and sort out Bloss's packing - he tends to hang all his clothes up in a pile in the bottom of the wardrobe - so a bit of sorting out required and then G, T and the boys will be down for tea tonight.

Hope all is well in your worlds
Take care my lovelies.
Zanna xx

Zanna - A Celebration of her Life

2011-07-10T08:33:00.018+10:00

On Thursday morning when Bloss let Zanna in to come up stairs when he went to work - she usually spent half an hour or so up with me before I left for work - she seemed quite unwell and was moving very slowly and generally not happy. I wondered if she had had another seizure during the night. I had back to back appointments all day at work so had to leave her. She wasn't able to walk back down the stairs so I had to carry her and then she climbed into her bed and I went to work. I managed to get home a little bit early onto to find that she'd gone during the day. Needless to say Bloss and I have been a bit of a mess for the past couple of days. Many of you know me on Facebook so know this already. The loving messages and support we got from all our friends has been amazing. This is when you discover all the doggy/pet people - they really understand what it's like to lose a pet. However gradually the pain is beginning to ease and as I know from past experience what will be left is a host of wonderful memories of how much love, light and laughter she brought to our lives. I did have a chat to our vet as I was worried that perhaps she had been bitten and I could have saved her if I'd taken her to the vets. However he has reassured me that he's certain that the seizure a few weeks ago was a warning that something wasn't right in her brain and he believes she had either a stroke or an aneurism - and that it would have been blissfully quick. She certainly looked very peaceful so I just have to hang on to that thought.

It's a tribute to how much pleasure she brought to our lives that we will probably get another dog. I remember reading once that the greatest legacy you can have for a dog you've loved and lost is to give another one a chance. Zanna was a giveaway - had become too big and boisterous for a young couple who hadn't given her that much training and who now had a baby. Hopefully we can give another dog the chance of a loving home. However we won't do anything until after our trip - wouldn't be fair to get a dog in the next few weeks and then stress it all over again putting it in the kennels for a month - but maybe after we come back we'll have a look around to see who needs help.

I've just spent the last half an hour or so going through all my photos and laughing and crying at the same time while seeing just what a big part she played in our family. Here's a selection below and also some beautiful verses sent to me by some of my wonderful friends.

Thank you my beautiful Zanna for the joy you brought to my life xx

She is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.
You are her life, her love, her leader
She will be yours faithful and true till the last beat of her heart.
You owe it to her to be worthy of such devotion

I LOVED YOU BEST
So this is where we part, My Friend,
and you'll run on, around the bend,
gone from sight, but not from mind,
new pleasures there you'll surely find.

I will go on, I'll find the strength,
life measures quality, not its length.
One long embrace before you leave,
share one last look, before I grieve.

There are others, that much is true,
but they be they, and they aren't you.
And I, fair, impartial, or so I thought,
will remember well all you've taught.

Your place I'll hold, you will be missed,
the fur I stroked, the nose I kissed.
And as you journey to your final rest,
take with you this...I loved you best.

The Rainbow Bridge
inspired by a Norse legend
By the edge of a woods, at the foot of a hill,
Is a lush, green meadow where time stands still.
Where the friends of man and woman do run,
When their time on earth is over and done.
For here, between this world and the next,
Is a place where each beloved creature finds rest.
On this golden land, they wait and they play,
Till the Rainbow Bridge they cross over one day.
No more do they suffer, in pain or in sadness,
For here they are whole, their lives filled with gladness.
Their limbs are restored, their health renewed,
Their bodies have healed, with strength imbued.
They romp through the grass, without even a care,
Until one day they start, and sniff at the air.
All ears prick forward, eyes dart front and back,
Then all of a sudden, one breaks from the pack.
For just at that instant, their eyes have met;
Together again, both person and pet.
So they run to each other, these friends from long past,
The time of their parting is over at last.
The sadness they felt while they were apart,
Has turned into joy once more in each heart.
They embrace with a love that will last forever,
And then, side-by-side, they cross over… together.

Heartfelt thanks to Nola for these last two poems - they mean so much to me - I wept buckets when I read them but nonetheless they've provided great solace.

Zanna as I first saw being held by her previous owner

Her puzzled face

She was always Queen of the Deck - this is before we built on the new deck

Down the river with Josh

Her white sock was often commented on - sometimes people thought she had a bandage on

Such a pretty smiley face

Remember the night (Christmas Eve) she took off in the thunderstorm and we found her miles away - and then she was so exhausted she slept for nearly a while day

Queen of the new deck

Posing when I got my new camera a couple of Christmases ago

Loafing around

Both grandsons loved her but Curtis has always had more time for her - he's going to miss her badly

Tuckered out

Clive also will really miss her - when he stayed with us for a few months she and he spent a lot of time together

Zanna the reindeer

Sniffing around in the bush

Out in the bush with Bloss

With Curtis again

A rare one this - she wasn't allowed on the furniture but I think the boys encouraged her to overcome her normal good judgement this night

You're such a pretty girl Zanna

Pensive

Hmmm nice smells! always on the lookout for something to chase - who remembers the possum story?

At the park with Josh

Another park trip

With Josh this time

And finally probably my favourite picture of her
RIP my wonderful Zannagirl

Sparkles and Spectacles

2011-06-26T16:39:00.070+10:00

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

2011-06-20T17:46:00.004+10:00

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

2011-06-05T09:35:00.001+10:00

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

It starts today!

2011-05-29T09:28:00.000+10:00

What you ask! 12 weeks of careful eating, no alcohol and a damn sight more exercise - that's what. The lovely Briony is putting me to shame with the effort she's putting in to getting in shape and feeling good before her trip. I've been doing a bit of thinking over the past week or so and I've had a lovely break in Melbourne. It's 14 weeks till we leave for our US trip and just over 12 till my birthday. I know from previous experience that I'm really an all or nothing kind of a girl when I'm serious about dropping some kilos and I also know that it really needs to involve a distinct lack of alcohol. So the pledge is on as of this morning.

We'd a wonderful time in Melbourne - weather wasn't too bad - a bit cool yesterday but nowhere near as cold as I thought it would be. We caught up with Clive on Thursday afternoon which was fantastic - he's looking great - spends a lot of time in the gym while he's in Korea - as there's not much else to do - so has a marvellous set of shoulders on him! Thurday night we went to dinner at No 35 - this was a beautiful restaurant - the veiws were amazing - I've tried to capture but it's a bit hard at night inside glass. The food was delish too - I had salmon as an entree - pic below and John Dory as a main - forgot to take a pic of it. Then we headed to Her Majesty's to see Dr Zhivago - just magnificent - such a powerful poignant story and the music and singing was outstanding - I still get goosebumps thinking about the power of the voices - Anthony Warlow was first class.

Friday we had a bit of a wander round the shops in the city then headed out to Bridge Road - I didn't go too crazy -( after all I bought a diamond earlier in the week - more about that later) but I got a couple of tops - one Cordelia Street - I really like her stuff. Then we headed back to the city again and caught up with a former work colleague who lives in Melbourne. So we met up in Fed Square and had a drink and talked a lot!! Then it was back to the hotel and got ready to meet up with Clive and Jo (his girlfriend of the last year who we hadn't been able to meet yet). The plan was that they would come to our hotel and we'd have a drink in the bar there then head for dinner at the Atlantic, over in the Crowne Casino. However we hadn't reckoned on the footy which was on at the MCG - and we were staying at the Hilton on the Park right across the road from the MCG. The traffic was horrendous and eventually after a few calls and texts, Bloss and I ran out from the hotel and crossed the road and hopped in the back of the car as they were inching slowly in the traffic. We had an amazing seafood dinner at the Atlantic and a really fun night with Clive and Jo - she's just perfect and they seem very happy together.

Yesterday we went to the Queen Victoria markets in the morning then did the city circle on the tram - such a nice way to see what's happening around the place, then it was time to head back to the hotel, collect our gear and head back to the airport. We got back into Rockhampton around 7.30pm last night and home just after nine. What a lovely break!

Now about the diamond - some of you may remember that I bought one last year - we get the opportunity as Rio Tinto employees to buy them at wholesale prices. So this year I bought one almost identical to last year's - just a bit bigger. I absolutely adore the light coloured champagne diamonds - which coincidentally are considerably less expensive then the white or pink ones. Anyway I got a C2 - the second lightest shade and it's about three quarters of a carat (last year's one was half a carat) and I'm going to get it made into a pendant. I've found the design I like so just need to go and have a chat with my jeweller - the same one who made my ring for me last year.

So that' this weeks goss. I'm off to be super good - going out for lunch today - but I'm already in the right mindset - mineral water for me! Have a great week folks.

Love Zxx

Maw and her boy!

View from our room of the MCG

The view of the city from No 35

My salmon - served on the lawn!

Shopping in town - love the deciduous trees

The fascinating skyline with ominous clouds

Bloss and I out for dinner with Clive and Jo

Clive and Jo

Heading home as the sun sets

False Alarm

2011-05-22T09:00:00.000+10:00

Yes I think the return of the mojo was a false alarm - I'm still plodding along but not getting anywhere really fast. Our Melbourne trip is this week so maybe after that's past I might finally knuckle down and shed a few kilos. It'll then be only be about 13 weeks till we leave for out US trip so that might get me moving.

Last weekend I was sitting having a quite wine or two with my laptop on my knee and decided to see what shows were on in Melbourne. A phone call later and we're off to see this show :

with dinner first at this restaurant :

No 35 at the Sofitel

So that should be fantastic - really looking forward to it. That's Thursday night, then Friday night we're having dinner with Clive and Jo - who we haven't met yet so that's another lovely treat in store.

Work is much better now - things have settled down a bit and whilst I'm still really busy every day that feeling of being on a treadmill which is going too damn fast has gone. Long may it stay away!!

Eight years ago today Bloss and I got married in Raratonga in the Cook Islands - we snuck off on one of our many holidays and just omitted to tell anyone that while there we were getting married. So we got married in a little gazebo on the beach with a couple from England we had met the night before as our bridesmaid and best man - it was very simple but very special. We went out for tea last night to celebrate but our real treat is this forthcoming mini break in Melbourne. I've posted a couple of photos of our special day.

For Mothers day we went out for tea with Grant, Tiff and the boys - some photos of that below too.

The other thing I've been playing around setting up is a blog on TravelPod. As you all know I usually post photos on here during our trips and I also post on Facebook and the feedback I get from both is always very positive - I'm always amazed by how many people tell me at a later date how they've vicariously enjoyed our holiday. But the other thing I'm now trying to always do is to put together a trip report - particularly when we do a tour so that other people can get an idea of what's involved prior to going on the same tour. I know how much benefit I found from people doing this so I kind of see it as my payback. Anyway after our Central Europe trip I posted a report on Epinions and got some very good feedback. But when it came to my last years's trip the way the site was set up meant it wouldn't let me post a second trip report under Cosmos Tours - which was where it needed to be and I couldn't get anyone from the site to respond to my query on what to do. As it was very long and covered many places it didn't sit well with any one area of Trip Advisor - so I posted a note on the forum saying that I had done this report and if anyone would like me to email it to them to private message me through Trip Advisor and I'd send it. To date I think I've forwarded about 25 versions. Anyway what I've now done is put them both on TravelPod so hopefully anyone can find them whilst googling. But as you can see I've also put a link to the site at the top of my blog if anyone is interested. I plan to try and update frequently when we're on our US trip - I can also send a link to FB when I update so I'm thinking it will save me having to replicate the same information in two places as I've done in the past. We'll see.

I know I'm a bit of a stop and start blogger at the moment and thank you all for still supporting me. You all mean a lot to me. Love Zxx

And now some pics

Mother and her wonderful No 1 son

Me with the closest I can get to my own daugher

Just after the ceremony with our bestman and bridesmaid and
our delightful marriage celebrant

On the beach

Love this shot

Could it possibly be?

2011-05-01T14:02:00.000+10:00

Yes I think perhaps I might have found my mojo again - it's not full on yet - more's the pity but I do believe I'm seeing the light. This past week has been pretty good - walked three nights, no alcohol on any week night and just eating what I should be. The scales are creeping back down again and I just need to hold this focus.

Unfortunately the walking has come to a bit of a halt which is a shame as I was enjoying getting back into it and it's such lovely walking weather now. But I had a little lumpy bit just above the inside of my ankle - have had it for ever and a day but my doctor spotted it one day and said I should just keep an eye on it and let him know if it started get any bigger. Over the last few months it had grown slightly - still small, pink but it was sort of like a cyst but with a hard centre and I could feel the centre was a bit bigger so anyway when I saw him a couple of weeks back he said I should just have it excised to be on the safe side. So that little treat was Friday night - it might only have been a little lumpy bit but I've got four stitches where it used to be and a definite dent in my leg. Anyway he said not to do anything too strenuous for a couple of days until it had settled down. But it's feeling fine now after being a bit pink and sore for a couple of days so I'm thinking I'll be back on the track tomorrow night,

I had a horrendous Easter - well probably not that bad but I definitely ate and drank a lot of stuff I shouldn't have but I went back to work on Tuesday and got myself back on track. Easter weekend Bloss and I had a couple of 'yard' days and took no less than three trailer loads of foliage, fronds etc to the dump - we certainly had our own little rain forest happening here which needed some severe taming. But all looking good now.

Can't really think of much else exciting to tell you so will just shut up. Only one photo this week - I spent this morning updating my photo screen - hadn't done it for several years. I decided this time to go all black and white so I chose some photos yesterday and popped them on a flash drive and printed them out while I was in town.

So Grant & Tiff, Clive & Jo and Bloss and I across the top
Curtis, Mum, Linda (sister) & I, Josh
Linda & Frank , my two nephews, George(brother) & Lorna
Bloss & I, Linda & I, Mum and George

And that's all folks - hope you have a great week.

Love Zxx

Mini Meltdown

2011-04-17T09:06:00.000+10:00

Here I am grovelling abjectly again for my non appearance. It's been an interesting couple of weeks to say the least. It hasn't all been bad - there's been some great things too and I mst say that by many people's standards the bad wasn't all that bad.

So what's been happening? Work reached an all time high of crazy busyness. Around about the time I last posted, work decided to roll out a major employee benefit (that's 1300 people) and yours truly got told about it approximately ten days before roll out. So for two weeks prior to the roll out date - which was fixed in concrete - I was making this happen - and I did - very successfully. But to do that meant working 60/70 hours a week for two weeks. Roll out day went perfectly but while the emphasis of all this was to get the benefit details to our employees there was an add on which allowed similar benefits to their partners and families for a reduced cost. I hadn't bargained on the fact that the employees would be delighted with their free benefit and immediately want to get their partner in on the deal too!!! So the craziness looked like continuing. Might add that the deal for employees is for free membership at any of the 3 local gyms, free golf at 3 local courses and free entry to the local movie theatre.

I had a discussion with my immediate boss late on the Monday (roll out day) and while she was sympathetic to a point her comment was that she wasn't asking me to work these hours!!!! (although she still expects deadlines to be met) So home I went. That night I tossed and turned and was awake at 2am wondering how I was ever going to get through my workload and stay sane. At 3.45am I got up and got on my trusty laptop and emptied my head out. And then my plan came together. I realised it was my life and my choices and that it was up to me to look after my mental and physical health and that I needed to do things differently. I won't bore you with the little detail but I came up with a strategy and some rules for me and also acknowledged that with the choices came some consequences - I'd have to learn to accept that not completing a task on time perfectly every time wasn't my failure rather a failure of the business resourcing or the planning of the person who gave it to me. I have always prided myself on delivering quality on time and of course with this ever increasing workload the only way to continue to do that was to work longer hours. Should add that I put all this down in an email to myself.

Anyway went to work on Tuesday actually quite angry but with some firm resolve. My manager - next step up from my boss came past and said good morning - I replied but not with my usual enthusiasm. He immediately came in, and asked how I was and said he knew I'd been working very long hours and how was I - at this point I was going to bawl - so I pulled the email I'd written to myself up on my screen and told him to read that. He was very sympathetic and also apologised very sincerely for not arranging for any resources to help me with the benefit project. At one point both of us were in tears!! We had a good discussion about work/life balance and he's supporting all the plans I've put in place. So I felt much better after that. Might just say that on Friday afternoon before I left he asked me how my week had been and if I was finding things a bit better.

So all this stress caused my eating habits to go AWOL and my weight was jumping about all over the place. However I got my act together on Monday of this week and I'm back on track and have managed to dispose of the stress gain and back to where I was. I have a goal which always helps. Bloss and I are off to Melbourne at the end of May for a couple of days. We can't manage to get away at Easter as I didn't line up the kennels for Zanna in time so this will be a lovely break plus I just love Melbourne. Clive is going to be in Melbourne at the same time so I'll get to see him (haven't seen him since last August) and we'll get to meet Jo his new girlfriend as well as just have a nice little break. I got a brilliant deal on flights with Tiger from Rockhampton to Melbourne ($225 return for us both including the credit card fee, extra 20kgs etc) and then I did the Wotif mystery hotel - I'd worked out in advance which one I thought it was and I was right - The Hilton on the Park and we get two nights for us both for $330. So really quite a cheap weekend - we leave on Thursday at 11am and into Melbourne around 2pm and leave Melbourne again on Saturday night at 5.30pm so should manage to do a bit of damage to the plastic in that space of time!!!

Now a few pics of the good times in the last couple of weeks:

The boys playing silly buggars

A view of where I work from the ocean

Last Sunday morning Deb rung up and said lets go boating so we did

We went from our place up the harbour into the Marina and had lunch on the boat there - yummy sandwiches and pink champagne!

On the way back we went up the river a bit - the house you see is next door but one to us - but this is the river in front of our house

Last Monday Josh's Strings Group were playing at a concert in Library Square so I went along to watch - here he is just after the performance

Then we all went for tea to the Library Square Brasserie and here's Curtis who as usual is pulling an interesting face.

So as you can see from the pictures I have much to be thankful for and I just needed to get the old work/life balance properly aligned and I think I have now although it will take careful monitoring. So once again I've been a poor commenter but thank you everyone for your comments to my last post - you make me feel loved and wanted.

Hope all is well your world and here's to a wonderful week
Love Zxx

A Lost Soul

2011-03-24T22:04:00.001+10:00

Yes that's what I'm feeling like. I just can't get my head in the right place. I've paid an arm and a couple of legs to join WW at Home and I'm just stuffing around. Five weeks with them and I've lost 1.4kgs - how lame is that?? But I'm hanging on by my fingernails - at least I've managed to lose albeit pretty bloody pathetically. I'm trying to reach within and find that place where you miraculously get your shit together and do what you're meant to do.... and for me that means cutting out the alcohol. I'm thinking about it - now just need to get the thought to transmogrify into an action.

Elsewhere in my life - enjoying work - still really busy but back in control again. As I think I said - got a couple of younger team members playing the game a bit - (and our leader knows it) and as I said to her - hey I've been playing the game a lot longer than them - so just watch it! Actually I'm relishing being considerably more mature so don't feel the need to react at every little niggle - just pick my moments and if they carry on long enough this old lioness might roar!!!

Got myself an awesome little hair piece - no photos yet - must get some - it's a scrunchy style - drag all my own hair back and loop this little baby around the stump and it looks amazing - brilliant colour match to my own hair. My hairdresser lent it to me but I'm going to buy my own - only about $20 - cant afford not to!!!

Other news - Clive (no 2 son) still working in Korea - just been on R and R with his girlfriend in Bali and stayed here - amazed that he hasn't come back married or at the very least engaged! Now wouldn't this just be the most amazing place to stay?

A couple of weekends ago - OMG how long between posts - a friend was up from Brisbane and we went to Rocky (Rockhampton) for the day. A photo tribute to the purchases below :

Needed some cappucino cups for the new coffee machine

But then these little babies were $6 for the set of 4 - a little bit small but hey I'm adaptable

And then some clothes shopping - nice little top

This little dress was abot $20 - interesting hem line- back dips - love it

Bought this one after I'd bought the one below - looks brilliant with it

Almost passed this one up - the all in one pants suit fitted perfectly but the wrap over top looked crap - but decided I could modify the top and it was worth having the pants suit

Neat little dress which is one of thos scrunchy ones which will pack beautifully for our forthcoming trip

Note the candle holders on the left - got the set of 4 really cheap - cost me more for the candles!!

And that's the news folks. I know I've been a bit quiet recently. Kind of lost my blogging mojo. But not prepared to just dip out - I've had far too much support here in the past so just trying to do the old "fake it till you make it". And despite what you might think I am still reading. How about you all leave me a comment and give me major guilts and I'll get back to being a good blogger again!

Have a great week possums!!!

Love

Zanna xxx

Normal Service Resumed

2011-03-09T18:54:00.000+10:00

That how it feels for me this week - I survived the two weeks of doing two jobs - bloody near killed me but I got there. There's no doubt that I put myself under undue pressure - I am such a perfectionist. When a couple of things went wrong - nothing too drastic - both my current and previous bosses told me not to worry - "shit happens" - to which I replied - "not to me!!" And it normally doesn't as I always prepare well so things run smoothly. I think the other aspect which was causing me to stress - and I only just realised it today, was that one of the team I have joined was really quite disparaging when I was given the position - because I don't have an HR degree and she does. She has since settled down (she's much younger than me) and on the surface is fine but I always feel that she's just waiting for me to do something wrong so she can pounce. And of course - guess whose area I was having to cover for!!! So I was triple checking everything so she'd have nothing to 'get' me on when she got back. I was actually discussing this with my boss as she gave me my performance review results today - and even though I've only been in the role 4 months she's really happy with how quickly I've picked up the reins. Her comment was that there's varying ways to climb a mountain - you can land on the top with a helicopter (degree) or climb the long way up the winding path (me). Anyway got a sizeable annual salary increase plus a fantastic incentive payment - so a happy camper tonight.

And now to WW at home - still plodding along - had a set back week before last - gained 400g which really baffled me as I'd been tracking faithfully and had been well down on the Friday and then shot up on the Monday. However I've just kept on keeping on and am down 800g this week so progressing steadily. I'm still cutting back on the alcohol - trying to have four or five AF days each week. Next attack is to up the excercise and try and get back to walking regularly. Linz mentioned a nifty little Iphone app called Sprint GPS which I've downloaded and about to try. But I was off and striding tonight when I got home from work so that's a good start.

Lots of photos following - we went for sundowner drinks a couple of weeks ago to a local lookout on the way out for dinner, then last Saturday we went to the Mayor's Ball in aid of flood relief - a wonderful excuse to get all dressed up. Then I had my hair done on Monday night - got fed up with the style and colour so have had it shaped in at the back and gone to a much lighter shade of blonde.

Bloss and I at the lookout

Sunset at the lookout

The lookout is over QAL (Queensland Alumina)

We were looking after Curtis that afternoon so he came with us for the sundowner then we took him home before we went for dinner

All dressed up for the Ball

Got my hair upstyled - here's the back view

And the front view

Bloss and I

Les girls - for some reason I was giggling so shrugging my shoulders so looking like Nanny no Neck!

Bloss and I on the way in to the BAll

At the end of the night waiting for the Maxicab - somebody decorated me with a gold sash from the back of the chairs

New do - front

New do - back

New do - side

And that's all folks - hope everyone is well out in bloggy world. Have a great week.
Love Zxx

A Good Week

2011-02-22T18:47:00.002+10:00

Well it's been a good week for me - still not quite as on the ball as I'd like but I recorded a loss of 700g this week so very happy about that. I've been very conservative in my alcohol intake - was going to cut it out but decided I'd keep off the wine during the week and drink the McWilliams Balance on the weekend. I've tracked religiously all week and even managed to get my a into g and walk once. So off and running again this week and hoping to have another good week.

Work is even crazier - one of the other HR Advisers is on holiday so I'm having to do her job as well as mine - not fun and has been stressing me big time - something I'm not used to. However I'll work through it -she's back next Monday and see how I go for the future - but needless to say I made my feelings known!

I'm sitting here watching on TV the dreadful scenes resulting from the massive eathquake that occurred today in Christchurch in New Zealand - it's just horrendous. Geez Mother Nature is certainly wielding her power in the southern hemisphere these past couple of months. What a terrible tragedy - I'm just hoping that our blogger friends in Christchurch are OK. My heart goes out to everyone there.

On a more positve note we booked and paid for our holiday yesterday - I haven't actually counted the number of weeks yet - but I will soon!!!

And the usual few photos

Sharon and I played silly buggers with this tower of empties and posed for some daft photos at the recent work celebration BBQ

We went round to our friends place on Saturday night for dinner and a game of Cranium

We all had to wear a hat to highlight our 'cranium' . This was one Clive had left in the downstairs room. Lots of room for my brain to expand!!

Bloss wore his 'Jimmy' hat which we bought in Scotland many years ago.

I can't think of much else in the way of news so will sign off and wish you all a good week.
Love Zxx

ps Chris B - the header picture (as Lonicera rightly says) was taken in Athens in Greece. We had just come back down from the Parthenon and he was sitting there smiling away with his gold teeth waiting for the usual 1 euro donation so we could take his photo.

New York, New York

2011-02-13T12:26:00.000+10:00

Yes I know I've been slack again - I've kind of lost my motivation for blogging - not many people commenting and I also have been a poor commenter. However I'm pushing myself to do the odd post as I feel that this is still one of the best ways to keep myself motivated when I want to lose some kgs, plus I can't disappear off and leave all my lovely 'bliends'.

So the plan - well it went well week one, fell by the wayside week two and then back on the rails for weeks three and four. I haven't entered this weeks loss - tomorrow is official weigh day - but so far it's looking good. I finally got my WW At Home pack - was a little bit disappointed - I was looking for more in the way of menu plans as they used to do years ago. I found it was good to encourage you to try new combinations - and they were usually nice and easy. I don't mind trying new recipes but usually only on the weekend - during the week it needs to adhere to the KISS principle! Anyway called WW the day after it arrived - and also gave them the feedback that it would be good to have some next steps advice included with the pack when it arrived - I know from a couple of others that they just hazarded a guess that they should phone WW. Anyway I requested that my new At Home leader email me - I'm just too busy at work to field calls and having done it via email before I know it can work quite successfully. However I got a call from Belinda at work a couple of days later - so had to explain to her that I wanted to pursue the email option - she had misunderstood the instruction left for her and is quite happy to go with email and I got a nice newsy and friendly email from her later in the day.

So tomorrow is official WW weigh in day and I'll do some measurements this arv and kick off my 12 week programme. I do know that I need to up the exercise but I haven't quite got to it yet!!

And now to the title - I went to see Mark my wonderful trave agent on Tuesday and we've come up with a travel plan which he is off to get quotes on. It looks something like this :

3 September - fly to New York. Spend the next week based there but with a train trip and a couple of nights in Washington.

10 September - fly to Miami and embark on Oasis of the Seas for a seven day Eastern Caribbean cruise - calling to Nassau, Bahamas; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Philipsburg, St. Maarten; and then back to Fort Lauderdale.

17 September - spend 3 nights in Miami then fly to New Orleans for 4 nights

24 September - fly to Albuqueque, hire a car and drive to Los Alamos to see Reid, Christy and the three boys

30 September - back to Albuqueque, on to LA and home to Brisbane arriving Sunday 2 October.

So all very exciting - oh how I adore planning trips and researching!!!

Can't really think of much else in the way of news - I'm still crazy busy at work but I'm gradually feeling I'm more in control - some days it really stresses me - I'm such a control freak and I hate the thought of not being in control and delivering to what I think of as my usual standard. But I was at a work function on Friday night and had a comment made to me by a couple of girls in the Accounts Department that they were so happy that I was in HR - we do a fair bit of interacting making sure our expat payroll invoices are paid, and fixing up salary cost centres etc - often not changed properly when people move positions. They told me that they had actually been discussing me that day and saying how great it was to have someone who followed things through to completion - so that obviously made me feel good.

Bloss's birthday is coming up this month and this is what I've bought him

The De Longhi Nespresso Essenza

My friend Deb bought her husband one for Christmas and they love it - I've tasted the coffee and it's fabulous. So since its always a challenge working out what present to buy for Bloss - and he's been making the odd noise about wanting a coffee machine - I just got him one.

And that my friends is it from me for this week. I'll update my side bar tomorrow with my weigh in result. Have a great week everyone

Love Zxx

THE Plan

2011-01-26T18:49:00.001+10:00

Time to outline THE PLAN!! Well the combination of my gain while in Europe in July (which didn't disappear) and eating all that good wholesome warming comfort food in the cold wintry wilds of Scotland means that I need to lose about 7kgs to feel kind of right again. Truth be told a few kgs more wouldn't go astray but first of all I need to address the magnificent seven! I've been sort of following Pro Points but haven't really got right into it so decided I needed to hit my pocket - that usually works for me! - and so I've joined up to WW At Home and I'm currently awaiting the arrival of my 'kit'. I feel it will be good for me and help me 'bed down' the PP system. I've been counting and weighing all this week - and managed to lose 400g which is really ?iss weak as if I laid off the alcohol I'd be so much further in front. But as you all know I need to be in a certain frame of mind to do that - I'm working towards it!!

Anyway back at work - had my usual week of absolute fatigue - I can travel east to west with no jetlag but west to east gets me every time and it doesn't seem to matter what I do/don't do I still take the best part of a week to get my clock realigned. But I think I'm back in sync now. Work is still crazy busy and being the control freak that I am I was feeling a tad overwhelmed trying to pick up all the loose ends and get everything back on track. Today is Australia Day here and a public holiday but Bloss was working as his project contractors were working today and taking Friday off so I chose to work too. What a fantabulous day - no emails, phone calls or visitors and instead I caught up on all those ugly things which were hanging around on my task list. In reality working a public holiday allows you to get through the equivalent of two days normal work. So feeling so so much better tonight. And of course that's another day in the bank for the upcoming holidays!

The delightful Miss A gave me this award - thank you lovely lady! Now since I'm a bit 'time poor' at the moment I'm going to answer the questions and invite any of you who are interested to participate - the conditions say I should nominte 15 bloggers - and to be honest I don't think I've got that many regular followers right now. But I can say with hand on heart that everyone of you who ARE following at the moment are without doubt deserving of this award and are most certainly Stylish Bloggers

So revealing 7 things about myself (difficult since I've done a few of these over the years and you probably all know all about me already)

I'm a bit of a techno geek - guess that's quite unusual for a 55 year old granny - but I love finding out about new gadgets/technology. Just sent off my 'virgin' Twitter today on my new Iphone
I'm very much a surface tidier - the house might look spotless - but jeez be careful opening the cupboards
I have a wall of my office covered in watercolour prints of places I've travelled to - gets lots of comments from visitors - I tell them it reminds me why I'm here ...... so I can go there (or somewhere like it)
I have so many clothes they take up 3 wardrobes - but I very seldom pay full price for anything - I'm happy to wait till the end of season and buy at 50 or 70 per cent off - just look for classics.
It's taken me 3 years to grow my hair to the current length and after having short hair for the first 50 odd years of my life, I don't think I'll ever go short again. I may vary the style but it won't be short!
My favourite colours are probably red, black and white - only have to look at the way I'm currently decorating our home to realise that.
And for years had lots of bits around me but after we did some renovations a few years back I've become quite minimalist - hardly any bric a brac, little ornaments etc around the place. I'm liking the 'lean' look.

And now the customary photos:

The clock in our lounge room was rather dated and quite tatty and I saw this magnificent specimen in a gift shop the day before I left Scotland - cost rather a lot as it's a hand made design of glass - but it looks fabulous in our lounge.

Now we all know I've a bit of a shoe fetish - aren't these gorgeous! I brought them and the two pairs below back with me

These are so sexy but also so comfortable to wear

And here we have the chain gang! think they might drive me nuts as the chains clank as you walk!

We all went out for tea for Grant's birthday on Sunday night. Tiff had her 30th a week or so ago - may have mentioned that they went to Hawaii to celebrate. Anyway what can you get someone who's called Tiffany for her 30th - of course some Tiffany Jewellery - she loved the heart and chain I got her and vows she's not taking it off!

Josh - off to Grade 5 in the morning

Curtis - off to Prep in the morning

Granny - photo taken by Curtis

Bloss posing at his best - also taken by Curtis

And the birthday boy himself - can't quite believe (or don't want to) that I have a son of 32!

All right peeps -I didn't really mean this to be such a long post but I guess I'm all up to date now. Hope all is well in all of your worlds - I WILL try and comment a bit more.

Love Zxx

A look back at my trip to Scotland - Photo Post

2011-01-15T04:08:00.000+10:00

Hello good people, I'm in the Sky Lounge in Frankfurt airport whiling away four hours before my next flight to Singapore. Rather than a lot of words I've opted for a lot of pictures - hope you enjoy!

Mum Linda and I earlier this week out on a shopping trip

We went out for Mum's 78th Birthday on Tuesday night - me with my brother and sister

Maw with all her bairns!

My brother with his wife and family

Went out for lunch with my favourite big cousin - this was outside the restuarant

Here I am with my favourite cousin

A few snow scenes now

Dumgoyne Hill

And again

The Campsie Hills

A snowy night - the view from Mum's window

Crazy woman in the snow with no jacket (or shoes) on!!

A snowy morning from Mum's window

Love the light in this one

And here we have a frosty icy morning

I caught up with another very special blogger in Edinburgh - she has a new blog now and prefers to remain incognito - but you'll find her at Love Cat (or Elsie as I've abbreviated it to on my side bar). We've nearly managed to catch up on several of my previous trips to Scotland but finally made it this time - we had an absolutely brilliant time - felt like we'd know each other for ever.

My brother and his family recently got two kittens - Alfie and Lucy - here they are snuggled up together

Lloyd with Alfie (I think)

Caught up with some friends - some of whom I hadn't seen for 25 years - love that all my friends are people I can just pick up where I left off - we had a fantastic night. All through my teens I worked at a little tearoom in Balmaha which was owned by the Johnson family - in the picture above are two of the daughters of that family and the daughter in law.

Went to a ceilidh at the local pub The Oak Tree - here I am with my brother in law and some friends of theirs

Linda, my sister and I

Hogmanay - Linda doing a Gay Gordons with our nephew Lloyd

Lorna my sister in law doing I'm not quite sure what! But Mum was clapping.

Cameron the elder of my two nephews

Mum taking an action shot - we always rib her about her photographers stance - think it's because of her bifocals!

Duelling photographers!

Bit of a family group

Mum with two of her four grandsons - my two boys are her other two.

On the bow of Uncle Finley - Linda and Frank's new boat

Frank the skipper of Uncle Finley

Frank and I with Uncle Finley

Linda and Frank with Uncle Finley

Lunch in the Chart Room at Inverkip Marina

Linda and Frank at lunch

So that's you had a quick sample of my family holiday. It was so nice to catch up with old friends and family but it will also be nice to be home again. I've spent many hours agonising over the heartbreak currently happening in Queensland . Where we live we've been so so fortunate and haven't had any flooding but what's been happening elsewhere in the state is just devastating. Grant Tiff and the boys are currently in Hawaii celebrating Tiff's 30th birthday and they arrive back the day after me.

Eating - well the only thing I can say is that I've done plenty of that - my sister has a saying - something about having a wee bit of badness - well I've had far too many wee bits of badness - time to get back on the wagon! Watch this space.

Happy new year everybody and my wish for you all is that in 2011 you manage to realise at least one of your dreams.

Love Zxxx

Made it!

2010-12-30T18:40:00.000+10:00

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

2010-12-20T20:43:00.000+10:00

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!!

2010-12-11T18:46:00.000+10:00

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

2010-11-16T19:26:00.000+10:00

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???

2010-11-15T18:39:00.000+10:00

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!

2010-11-08T18:22:00.000+10:00

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

2010-10-30T07:02:00.000+10:00

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

2010-10-10T20:40:00.000+10:00

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

Not a lot to say

2010-09-27T17:46:00.000+10:00

Sorry peeps I've been a bit slack - been busy at work but not a lot else happening and I keep meaning to update but time kept just disappearing -probably cos I spend too much time on Facebook!!

Anyway no new developments on the work front yet - the change I thought might happen isn't at the moment but might in a month or two so we'll just park that for now and see what eventuates. I've got another function to organise - an award night for 100 people and as usual got lots of notice - 3 weeks. It's been a challenge trying to organise the gifts and do the background presentation (with appropriate music). Trouble is you do a good job once and you daren't make a tiny slip next time as everyone's expectations are high - and of course they expect you to top your previous effort. One of the things we did for the last awards night was to have a song playing as the award winner was announced and it continued to play while they made their way up to the stage. We had songs like New Kid on the Block for the 1st Year Apprentice winner, High Voltage for the Electrical Apprentice etc. There were only 12 awards at the last one. This one has 30!!! and I've been trying to come up with music that matches what they're getting their award for. There's all sorts of different categories - Business Priorities, Leadership, Our Values and Community Involvement. But I've had a bit of fun with them and hopefully we'll get a few laughs. One of my inspirations was for a couple of teams who did such a good job of organising, cleaning and housekeeping in an area that the air readings are clear enough now for them to work in that area without having to wear a respirator which is what they had to do previously. Anyway there's a few characters in those teams so I've chosen a song called The Tidy Song by the Wiggles - reckon it will crack the place up. Another one is one of our medical centre staff who organised a Cooking for Health evening - "Hey good lookin - what you got cookin". You get the picture. The function is this Friday night so will be glad when I get the run sheet finalised for that. I'm actually an award winner too - Terri, myself and two others from our team got an award for the organisation of the aforementioned awards night which we organised - so will be guest as well as an organiser. Probably more of the latter I'd say.

Have been on the straight and narrow this last week and lost 800g last week - a little bit more to go though to get back to where I was before going on holiday but at last I've got my finger out and doing something.

A couple of photos - thought I'd show you just how well my hair has been growing lately - it was such a struggle for a while to get it past my ears but it's going like a train now - and I'm loving having it a bit longer. And then one I took from the car as we were heading into town to go to the movies on Saturday night - there was such a beautiful red sky. We went to see Wall Street 2 - can't say I was particularly impressed. But we get vastly reduced Gold Room tickets through our company social club - so it's nice to relax in the big chairs and enjoy a glass of wine with the movie.

That's it from me - hope all's well with everyone. Back soon
Love Zxx

We are the Champions

2010-09-13T19:26:00.000+10:00

Well off I went to Brisbane on Friday - I flew down with Terri - my former manager. We checked into our hotel then headed out to lunch. After lunch she took off to the hairdressers - I didn't bother after my experience of last week! Instead I went shopping and managed to get rid of a few hundred dollars! Didn't actually go looking for anything but a lovely little top jumped out and said pick me in Katies, then I went into a bag shop where I just fell in love with this bag that winked at me from the bottom shelf, then just as I was heading back to the hotel to get ready, this beautiful blue dress leapt out from this little boutique and dragged me in to try it on - and of course it had my name on it so I had to buy it!! Anyway off we went to the awards night - massive affair with about 600 people there. We didn't think we'd win - we were up against Hamilton Island Enterprises and Dream World - and the Dream World synopsis in the programme sounded awfully good. Add to that we'd been seated in a room of over 60 tables - at the very back on the right hand side - such a long way to the stage so we figured we weren't going to need to go there!!! Imagine the feeling when they called out our name as the winner - we shrieked with joy then Terri made her way to the stage and I sat there with tears in my eyes - I was so proud. And so a few photos

This was on our way in. I put these photos on Facebook and Nola commented that she loved my outfit. Little bit of a story to this one. The top was one which Shaz bought in Italy during our travels. She normally can wear just about any colour and it looks fantastic with her olive skin tones. She bought this for about 10 euros at a little street market shop when we stopped for coffee one day. When she tried it on the colour just didn't do anything for her so she suggested I try it and see what it looked on me - and as you can see the colour was good on me so I handed over 10 euros and it took up residence in my suitcase!

The lady in white is Terri receiving our award - you can actually see her on stage at the very left of the picture

Clowning around - we just couldn't stop smiling

Do I look like the cat that's been at the cream?

With the trophy and the certificate.

Next stage is the Australian awards - three entrants from the the six state finals will be shortlisted to go the nationals - and there's a few hoops to jump through before the actual award night which is in Sydney in November. We should know if we've made it to the final three by the end of this month I think.

We flew back on Saturday morning,then Saturday night we'd the boys come to stay overnight - oh what fun they are.

Zanna doesn't normally sit on the furniture - but these two encourage her to get up to all sorts of things

Mr Poser

Look at those wonderful blue eyes

Much hilarity - Curtis pinching Bloss's chair and Bloss pretending to sit on top of him

More of the same

Bit of mischief in these eyes too!

Curtis just loves Zanna (and I'd say the feeling is mutual)

Playing silly buggars behind a cushion - think he gets it from his Granny!

Well was quite good all week but went a tad silly from Friday onwards. But today is another day/week/month and I'm back to it. Starting to get annoyed with myself for not getting it together - the weeks are just slipping past and I'm not knuckling down. So I'm just faking it till I make it - hopefully one of these fine days I'll slip into the groove again. Life is settling down a bit now and shouldn't be quite so social which usually makes it easier. Nothing to report on the work front yet - we'll see - maybe next week - and then again there might be nothing to report. Time will tell.

Till then have a great week everyone.
Love Zxx

Weekend in Brisvegas

2010-09-07T19:45:00.000+10:00

Well another fun filled weekend. I had Friday as a day's leave and we flew to Brisbane in the morning to go to a friend's son's wedding. We had a leisurely lunch at the Promenade Wharf then checked into our apartment. That night Bloss went to catch up with the groom's dad and I had drinks with a couple of Brisbane work colleagues one of whom is a close friend. Then she and I had dinner together. Saturday morning we headed out to the Direct Factory Outlets at the airport and I had a good mooch around - still only managed to visit about half of it in the two hours we had there. Not nearly as many bargains as you'd think but I did get a couple of tops and a dress. We then headed back into town as I'd made an appointment to get my hair done. That was a bit of a waste of time - my hair is fine and not a lot of it so to get volume you need to blow dry with a reasonably small brush - but she used a large brush and just didn't get the lift. I ended up combing the spray out and doing it myself. So then we headed off to the wedding. Haven't got any decent pics of the bride and groom but a got a few of us.

On Sunday we caught up with Craig's eldest son who lives in Brisbane and had brunch then found this awesome wine bar where you can taste all sorts of different wines. Then we headed back to his place to check out his new hifi gear - he's a real audio buff. And then it was time to head out to the airport to come home. But a lovely weekend and nice little break.

Not too much else to report - eating and drinking was pretty crappy last week but as of yesterday morning I'm back on the wagon and eating properly and leaving the alcohol alone. I've still got quite a lot of things on so it's going to take a bit of won't power to get shot of these kilos. But my mind set is good!

Off to Brissy again this Friday - the submission which I prepared for the regional Training Awards - which we won, has made it through to the State finals so they're on Friday night so going to that with my old boss.

I haven't gone into detail here but there's been a few changes at work - upshot is that instead of providing service and support for both sites, I'm back to working solely at the site closest to here, working for the same boss as 18 months ago with the same two people once again reporting to me. Not a bad outcome and much better than some of the others in my team. However I'm feeling a bit stale and there's some other possible changes in the wind. I'll update once I know where it's all at.

Reclining in the bar in the Novotel while out for drinks on Friday night

Bloss and I at the wedding

A group of us at the wedding

Bloss and I

About the only half decent photo of the bride and groom

And now a flash back to me cutting my birthday cake!

Think that's most of my news for this week - hope you're all having a good one.

Love Zxx

Last holiday picture post - Istanbul

2010-08-29T20:50:00.000+10:00

So nothing has changed - still having a good day then a not so good day with my eating habits - but I'll get there. I had a fabulous birthday on Tuesday - myriads of messages on Facebook, both sons calling me, family from UK and several very special SMSs. I actually didn't feel that well all day - had intermittent stomach cramps but muddled along anyway. We'd our friends come round in the evening and shared a few pizzas for tea and Deb brought a huge macadamia and chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake shop complete with candles which said '55'. But through the night I was awake with worsening cramps and terrible nausea and so started 3 days off work - with a lot of this time getting up close and personal with the toilet bowl at one angle or another?!!!! But I'm better now.

So here's the last of the holiday photos - I've been back for four weeks now and I've almost settled back into the groove -..... almost!!

This was our final dinner for the six of us who formed some great friendships during the tour and cruise - this is us back in Athens at the end of the cruise

Some of our first sights in Istanbul- the fish market

Glimpses from the taxi

Interesting little streets

A bubble pipe

Lots of cakes and slices

A tall tower - trying out some alternative photography here (Caroline?)

Check out the bags of oranges on either side of the doorway

Shaz and I loved this shop till we discovered that if you liked something you had to buy five of it - a wholesalers!!

Chestnuts!!

How would you like to get your bread delivered like this?

Corn on the cob!

The men washing in preparation for prayer time

Views of Istanbul - this side of the river is in Europe - the other side is in Asia - the only city which belongs to two continents

Yes OK you can take a picture of me - I'm a shoe shiner

Cups of tea at very little low tables

Checking out a bubble pipe in detail

Some rose flavoured tobacco

Shaz smelling the pipe

Our friend Nadir drinking apple tea - a favourite beverage in Turkey

Dinner at the Water Pipe Cafe - just along the street from our hotel

This lady was making little pastries

A weaver at work

This oven on his left is for making flat bread

Here I am in the Basilica Cistern - a complete underground reservoir which was first built in 632AD - mind boggling!

The magnificent Blue Mosque

The chimney for the Turkish Baths

Another view of the Blue Mosque - it's definitely worth a picture or two!

Inside the Blue Mosque - impossible to do it justice

The Aya Sofia - we didn't have time to go in - but what a magnificent edifice

The Blue Mosque in the distance

The Aya Sofia

I could write a whole other post about Turkish men. They are so full on and so romantic - but such fun - they make outrageous propositions to you but you can knock them back and have a laugh and still remain friends with them - but hey they never stop trying!!! And age doesn't seem to matter to them - I had propositions from some young enough to be almost be my grandsons never mind my sons!!! This delightful young man created this beautiful tulip from my serviette and then presented it to me. But prior to thus I took a photo of him and Shaz - telling him he looked like a film star - after he got really close to Shaz for the pic she told me "he had his tongue in my ear!!!" I think the only mistake you could make would be to believe them!

The streets are colourful

Inside the Grand Bazaar - an amazing place you can very easily get lost in - and we did!

Olives and nuts

And after the Grand Bazaar we found the Spice Bazaar

More views of the Spice Bazaar

We went out for dinner and this lady was in the restaurant - first cooking flat bread then making these tiny little ravioli with cheese.

And this is us on our last night of the Shazanne Adventure in our

lovely little hotel.
It was yet another holiday of a lifetime!

Ok then - the wedding in Brisbane is this coming weekend - I'll enjoy that and then Monday 6 September - I'm on the case again - need to get re-aligned - only about 15 weeks till I'm off to Scotland.

Have a great week everyone
Love Zxx

Cruisin'

2010-08-22T16:35:00.000+10:00

And so another week passes - and I'm still faffing about. It's my birthday on Tuesday so we've been having some early celebrations and I suppose I'm thinking I can't start being too good as I have to celebrate my birthday then the first weekend in September we're off to a wedding in Brisbane and spending a long weekend down there. So I think until then I'll try and invoke damage control - be good during the week and let up when it seems to be special occasion and my plan will be to focus on some serious stuff after the wedding - that would be 6th September.

So this week we have a selection of photos from the Greek Islands and Turkey taken during our cruise.

This was our cabin - the ship wasn't that new - but still clean and tidy and we thoroughly enjoyed it

Lifeboat muster - my face says it all!

First stop was at Mykonos and it was pretty windy as you can see

This is also on Mykonos looking back to the area known as Little Venice

St Nicholas' church at sunset

We were invited for cocktails as part of our tour - can't actually remember what I had - but it looks nice!

Then we had a Greek night on the ship - dress in blue and white. I wore my hair up all through the cruise - couldn't plug in my irons or hot brush so it was easier just to pin it up.

We had a morning trip to Kusadasi in Turkey and an excursion to Ephesus - absolutely fascinating

Look a whole street giving you some idea of how it used to be

Wonderful carvings and architecture and remember no cement to hold it all together

The ancient toilets - I'm sitting on one - see they had thunderboxes back then too - Aussies know what I mean!

We had the most wonderful afternoon on Patmos - we just roamed around this beautiful little town - it was gorgeous

Patmos

We climbed up a hill and looked down on our ship

What a brilliant frame for a photo

Sharon found a tree with fresh figs on

Such a pretty street

Now we're on Crete - doing a winery tour at 8.30am!

Looking overland at the oldest vineyard on Crete

Such a pretty window

And a nice little shop

And a pretty little alley

Cretan dancers entertaining us - they were superb and so obviously enjoyed what they were doing

And now Santorini - it's just as pretty as the postcards

Beautiful pictures everywhere you look

Looking down to the ocean

Imagine living here!

The famous blue domed roofs

This is probably my favourite photo - I just love the feelings this scene evokes in me

The view from half way down on the cable car.

And suddently you're on this weekend. It was the inaugural Botanic to Bridge fun run - so a group of us signed up to do 8km - we walked - but at a pretty good pace - finished it in under an hour and 15. Not sure what my legs will be like tomorrow though!!

Me just before starting

Some of our group

Me when I had finished

Our group when we finished. Bloss didn't end up doing it - reckoned he wasn't up for the 8km so was going to do the 3km but then he and Pat (a friend) said they couldn't get to the start line as so many streets were closed - so they just went to the finish line!!

So an exciting week ahead for me as it's my birthday. We went out for tea last night with Grant, Tiff and the boys - see photos below. Tuesday which is my actual birthday - the group of friends shown above are coming round - it's cheap Tuesday for pizza - so that's tea and we plan to do a bit of Singsta type stuff on the Wii - should be good fun.

Josh - he has the most beautiful blue eyes

Bloss and I

My boys! Oh Daddy look how big your ears are!

Me with my boys!

Curtis is trying to wind up his ears to look like Dad!

My first born and me!

And the whole wonderful family!

Have a great week everyone
Love Zxx

Let's visit Greece

2010-08-15T12:15:00.000+10:00

Well my head is hanging in shame - I've done nothing clever this week - haven't gained but that's not the point I told you all that I was going to lose. In my defence there's a fair bit going on at work at the moment - more on that another time - and between that and 'getting back in my box' after our trip - I just can't get my head in the right place. But tomorrow starts another week - so I'm going to do better.

I haven't splilt Greece into the various cities - otherwise we'll be going for months before I get round everywhere.

This one was taken on the ferry between Italy and Greece - we were playing this incredibly silly and funny game - the person with the camera makes an outrageous statement and then captures on camera the resulting facial expressions. I think this one was 'Precocious' which was our group nickname for a girl on our tour - about 18 travelling with her mum and her mum's friend and her daughter. She was attitude with a capital 'A'.

Here's the Temple of Zeus at Olympia

And this is where they light the Olympic flame every four years

The starting line for the ancient Olympic Games

We scored a lovely room with a fabulous view in Tolon

Mmmm Mohitos - one of my favourite drinks

Sunrise from our balcony in Tolon

And again - trying something a bit different

Sometimes I'm really quite naughty! - look where my hand is!

The Corinth Canal

Having a pre dinner drink in our hotel in Athens

At the Acropolis on our way up to the Parthenon in Athens

Beautiful views of Athens

More of the Acropolis

The magnificent Parthenon

Don't know where I found the energy to gyrate - it was 40 degrees and only about 9am

Paid the obligatory euro to have my picture taken with this funny little man - his front teeth were made of gold

Our farewell dinner in Athens - for those who didn't continue to do the cruise - at a lovely little open air restaurant and we were entertained by these dancers

I thought this lamp was so pretty

Our group - we shared an awful lot of laughs

Me with Vincenzo our tour director - heaven only knows why I was pulling this face. This was the end of him being with the tour - we had a new director Alexia for the cruise. We were all sorry to say goodbye to Vincenzo - he was incredibly good at his job but just so much fun as well. We have a myriad of crazy photos of one or other of us with him.

And next post will be the cruise and the Greek Islands. Have a great week everyone.
Love Zxx

Visiting Venice

2010-08-09T08:45:00.000+10:00

A few more photos to entertain you - from Venice this time - another wonderful city - it's up there amongst my favourites.

Viewing Venice from the boat crossing the lagoon

Posing on one of the many bridges

Sharon in St Marks Square

The belltower in St Marks square

St Mark's Basilica

Out for dinner - gee it was so hot - you can see the glow on my face!!

Vincenzo - our tour director - a real character - doing a few poses here

Waiting for the boat to go back to our hotel - Vincenzo and Guiseppe who was the director on the tour running parallel with ours.

Another view across the lagoon

A little canal

We had a gondola ride - with the crankiest gondolier - couldn't get him to crack a smile

Views from the gondola

Gliding up a little back canal

And another one

Lunchtime - ready for a nice cold beer

Sailing across to Burano Island

This was the home of Casanova

Burano Island - the lacemakers island

Another street view - I bought a gorgeous black lace tiered skirt in this shop

Vincenzo demonstrating the tradition of dunking this special sweet biscuit into a glass of champagne

Dunk dunk

And I got to taste it - delish!

But he got to drink the champagne!

Dressed ready for dinner - wearing my new black skirt and a scarf I bought in Florence

Have had an up and down week with eating and drinking - we had visitors from Auckland here for the weekend - but they left this morning - so no excuses. I should - correct that - WILL have good things to tell you next week. Hope your week is good too.

Love Z xx

Photos from Verona

2010-08-03T20:21:00.000+10:00

Back to work tomorrow - think my 'clock' is almost right - which is much faster than usual so here's hoping it doesn't regress. Damage from the 4 weeks away is 2.6kgs - but I'm hoping that at least 1kg of that will disappear kind of quickly!! I spent today making all my little WW jellies and fruit as well as a big bowl of salad ready to take to work for the rest of the week. Also need to get my water levels up again - while I did drink a fair amount of water while I was gone it was nowhere near enough - too scared to fill up too much when you're travelling and don't know when you next find a loo.

And so today we visit Verona - site of the famous Romeo and Juliet balcony - which we're told is a legend - I'm not so sure and the place we visited was sooo pretty, with lots of Letters from Juliet!

The old walls of the city

Look how pretty it is

I like lamp posts and doors - you might have gather this already

And of course interesting signs with lots of greenery

And this is THE balcony

It's supposed to be lucky to rub Juliet's right breast so of course I did - although Josh was heard to comment that Granny was being naughty!!

And here's all the letters to Juliet - apparently a team of volunteers working daily to reply to all these letters.

Some of the buildings had two tone bricks

Just another view of this beautiful city

And more

Love the colours in this one

The market square

Lots of masques - they were so beautiful

Another view of the square

Peeping through an archway

The clock tower

Wonderul old painted walls

Wines and vinegars - Josh was heard to comment that he reckoned Granny would be buying one of these bottles of wine - does he know me that well??

Leafy balconies

This balcony (I think) was used in the movie version of Romeo and Juliet

Another so so pretty lamp post

And balcony

The main street - we had an ice cream and a beer along here

In fact this is the ice cream I had - scrumptious!!

And just wandering around in front of the fountain.

OK back soon with Venice - I loved Verona so much I thought it deserved a post all of it's own.

Love Zxx

Some Photos from Pisa and Florence

2010-07-31T16:54:00.000+10:00

Back home today to home sweet home - and it's so lovely to be back. It was a wonderful wonderful holiday and so much fun and I've another swag of marvellous memories and a whole lot of new friends and acquaintances from around the world.

And now a few more photos :

In a little cafe somewhere on the road between Rome and Pisa

Delicious salad with my first glass of Chianti on Italian soil

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

And again

Me holding it up

Me pushing it over!!

The streets of Pisa

A little street restaurant

Street views

Going for a horse and cart ride round the streets of Pisa - Shaz and I and Paula and Mel, mum and daughter from Dunedin

Ready to go out to dinner

Our friends at dinner - Marian from Caboolture, Shaz and I and Mel and Paula

Me tripping the light fantastic with Vincenzo, our tour director

Such style!

Early glimpses of Florence

Florence

Yummy coffee

Street views

Such a beautiful beautiful city

Captured by Cupid!

Ponte Vecchio in the distance

Pretty balcony

On the Ponte Vecchio

Yes I ate this and enjoyed every bite of it!!

And I wasn't the only naughty one!

Back again in a couple of days with Verona and Venice (Verona is up there as one of my favourite cities).

Love Z xx

Some Photos from Rome

2010-07-29T14:57:00.000+10:00

Sorry folks - my holiday has been soo much fun but I just haven't had the time to blog. I have managed to keep up reasonably well on Facebook as those of you who know me there will know. Anyway here I am in Istanbul - last day - heading home this evening. Over the next week or so I'll post some photos in batches of each of the places we've been. It has been an amazing trip seeing so many magical places and meeting so many wonderful people. Anyway here goes with a selection from Rome - I'll label here and there.

We headed out to the Appian Way to see the catacombs - this is on the way there

An old house - trying out some photo effects

Trying out photo effects agin

We're only on a double decker bus but it looks like we might be on a roller coaster

View from the top of the Spanish Steps

Looking up the Spanish Steps

Throwing my coin into the Trevi Fountain - don't think I'll get my wish I threw it over the wrong shoulder!!

Shaz and I posing by another little fountain

We all went out for dinner and the waiters presented us all with a rose

A few pictures from the Vatican and Sistine Chapel

The Swiss guard at the Vatican

St Peter's Square

The Colosseum with photo effect

In the forum

We visited Castel Gandolfo where the Pope has his summer home - it was the most beautiful little town with so many lovely doorways, views, flowers etc.

And then we turned down this little alleyway and there was this wonderful blue lake

Shaz picking grapes

Me picking grapes

At dinner that night playing the 'clappers'

Back soon with some more from Pisa and Florence
Love Zxx

Some Photos from Dubai

2010-07-10T01:02:00.000+10:00

Hello folks, - flat out having fun but here's a few photos to show what we've been up to. Started our visit to Dubai with a night out to a Arabian show and meal way out in the desert.

A display of fruits on the way into the restaurant

A Taureno dancer (Spinning dancer)

Here we are in Mall of Emirates - a huge indoor ski slope - kind of strange when it was 43oC outside!!

The Jumeirah mosque in Dubai

Inside the Mercato Mall - looks like a European city

The Dubai skyline - the haze is caused by the amount of sand floating around in the air

A window in the Gold souk - so so ornate - 24K so very very yellow - I actually don't like it

Then we visited the Spice Souk

Waiting to cross over the river on an abra (boat)

This office building is known as the 'Coin'

The Grand Mosque in Dubai

To visit the mosque you need to wear an abaya (the robe) and sheila (pronounced shayla) worn over your head

Me in front of the mosque

We did a bit of posing

Sister Act!!

Beautiful chandelier

Another magnificent chandelier

A horse decorating the entrance to the resort where Tam and Shaz stayed. Tam had arranged a night in a five star resort as a special treat for her Mum. So we all went there in the afternoon - chilled out for a while, then went out for dinner then after dinner I caught a taxi back to Tam's place and they had some mother/daughter time. The next morning I caught a taxi back into town and met up with Peter and Jill who we had met last year on our trip to Central Europe.

Posing before we went out for dinner.

We went out to dinner from the resort on an abra

-
The abra driver/captain took this picture of the three of us

Right folks - need to go now - it's our last night in Dubai and we're off to Rome in the morning. Will get back to you all from there.

Love Z xx

Tonight's the Night!!!

2010-07-05T10:29:00.000+10:00

Well it's finally here - I'm uber excited and having the loveliest day just finalising all my bits and pieces. I've washed my hair, painted my toenails and redone my fingernails so far this morning. There's only me home and it was quite cool this morning so had the heater on for a while and the house is now nice and warm so I'm just getting around in my undies. However I will have to get dressed shortly and nip into town - I need to exchange a pair of shoes I bought as there seems to something rattling around in the heel so I have an additional clip when I clip clop around in them!

Apart from that I think everything else is just about organised. My case is nearly ready to close - just a couple of last minute toiletries to add. I've also been to Shaz's and got a few things of hers to put in my case - she's taking lots of supplies to her daughter and was running out of room and I had heaps - hence the hike-lite bed thingie in the top of it in the picture below.

Bags are packed and just about ready to go!

Out for dinner with friends on Saturday night - Bloss and I

Deb, Bloss and I

A group hug for me since I won't see them again till I get back.

So leaving here around 5pm tonight, pick up Shaz and head to the airport for the flight at 7pm - we then have from 8 till 2.30am in Brisbane before our flight to Dubai, but we'll check our luggage right through and I think one of Sharon's sons who lives in Brisbane is going to take us back to their place for a couple of hours - and of course Shaz (like me) never misses an opportunity to see her grandchildren. That will just set her up nicely for her holiday. I saw my guys last night and they'll be at the local airport tonight again so we'll both have had our 'fix'.

Now off to leave lots of little notes round the place for Bloss - one to remind him of all the things he needs to do and two to stop him feeling lonely!!

With a bit of luck you'll hear from me again in Dubai.

Take care possums
Love Zxx

Awards Night

2010-06-27T07:04:00.003+10:00

Well as Terri said in her opening speech it was going to be bigger than the oscars or the gramamies and getting it organised sometimes felt like it. But it was well worth it - it was a huge success.

Our team provide a service to two sites primarily and so our customers at those sites are the management teams. So when they tell you how impressed and happy they are then it's a wonderful feeling - keeping your customer satisfied! In fact so happy were they at one site that they have nominated Terri, myself and Paul - the three of us who made it all happen -for a Bravo award. This is a very new innovation within Rio Tinto to recognise excellence within the business. So as you can imagine we're feeling very proud. We also heard last week that our other two submissions for training awards have made it to the finals. One of them Chris - my immediate boss prepared and Terri as team leader is being interviewed about that this week. The other one I did the bulk of the submission with a bit of input from the others here and there and it's being announced on the 24th July at the regional finals which this year are being held here in our local area and so the whole team are going - except me who will actually be cruising the Greek Islands on that particular evening! But my fingers will be tightly crossed. We're feeling very proud of ourselves - our first year of entering any of these awards and already we have won one and in the finals for the other two.

So now a few photos

Me just about to leave for the evening. This is the LBD I talked about a couple of posts ago

These are the new black shoes I bought - they are killers - I knew they were going to be before I left and said to Bloss with one of another black pair on one foot and one of these on the other - which ones these or the killers and he smiled ruefully and said 'the killers' and they bloody were - I was nearly crippled by the time it was over - on my feet constantly from 4.30 to 9pm. Things you do for elegance.

A bit of the old soft focus with the B&W here

And this is the team of people I work with - from the left W who looks after Licensing and Legislation - machinery tickets etc, then S and D the two ladies who look after all the document management, data entry, new starter programmes, enrolements for certificate programmes. The two men behind them are S who is joining our team for the next 6 months to replace Paul who looks after all our apprentices and then M who looks after all our confined space and working at heights training as well as our site in Gove in the Northern Territory. Then we have Terri, our team leader, myself who looks after creation of skills matrices for all the roles and the subsequent reporting, manages the Frontline Management programme and the Asset Management Programmes, manages the course and qualification catalogues for our Learning system and generally administers it for across both business units and on the side copes with little gems like Awards Nights! and Paul who looks after apprentices but who leaves tomorrow to spend his 6 months long service leave travelling round Australia with his wife and three children. Finally we have Chris who is the systems and technical specialist who D and S report to and I do some of the time but a lot of my work is done directly through Terri. And now you know all about us.

So that's a bit of an update on the event which had been ruling my life for the past four weeks and now I'm feeling this wonderful sense of lightheadedness that it's all over. Terri called round the day after with a beautiful gift for me - a travel journal, a beautiful embroidered luggage label "I was never meant to travel economy" and a CD called Chocolate Lounge - funky groove music and also told me to take an extra 2 days leave to make up for all the early starts and late afternoons I'd had pulling it all together. It's so lovely to feel appreciated!

I'll be back later in the week to update you on the final preparations for our trip - only a week and a day till we leave - but first another crazy week at work - month end reports and cost report, 2 day Frontline course on, new team member starting - so a handover ..... but then I'll really appreciate my holiday won't I?

See you all soon - and weight holding steady - mean to try and get a little bit more moved but just can't seem to find the time to focus properly on it.

Love Zxx

Two weeks to go

2010-06-20T07:15:00.000+10:00

Sorry again - I'm just so short of time at the moment and I think to myself -oh I must get a quick post done - and then there's another day gone and I still haven't done it. Mind you I've been managing to read and splatter the odd comment around.

The Awards Evening - it definitely deserves capital letters!! - is still consuming me for want of a better expression, but so far it's still running on track but the next three days are going to be challenging - it's this Wednesday night and I've still got trophies to get engraved - that's if I get the final winners names to engrave on them - and prizes to purchase and the run sheet is still being finalised so then have to talk to people about speeches etc. Then there's the course I'm coordinating for the following week which has it's own set of dramas and it's month end - so need to get all my reports done plus the cost reconciliation done before I go on leave. Then the new team member - who used to be my old team member a couple of years back before we moved from being site based to being RT Services and who was subsequently made redundant - starts two days before I go so I'll be trying to do some sort of hand over with her. So all this frenzy means that it'll be time to get on that plane before I know it.

Terri, my boss always says "Anne can always pull a rabbit out of the hat and just make things happen" but we were in a meeting together the other day and I said "Geez Terri - this isn't a rabbit - it's a flamin' zoo!!" But you know what - I love it and thrive on it.

What else - well we went to the Jimmy Barnes/Shannon Noll concert the other week - that was really good. We've been out to tea a few times with our friends - the local Surf Club one night, the local pub last night and last weekend had a 'hot pot' night at Shelly and Pat's place and we had our monthly ladies lunch yesterday. So both work and play have been pretty busy.

Shelly and I at the Surf Club the other week

Sitting in the grandstand at the Barnesy/Noll concert

Ready to head off to the Ladies Lunch yesterday

Heather, me and Geraldene at the Ladies Lunch

The cardi I'm wearing is one I've had for years - got it end of season about 6 or 7 years ago and I think paid $10 for it. Anyway it's not often cold enough with us for me to get to wear it - but yesterday was quite chilly so dug it out. And the compliments I got - you wouldn't believe. I went shopping in the morning and bumped into a few people I knew and they all raved about how good this cardi looked and then twice total strangers stopped me and said how much they loved it.

Been buying a few more bargains - there are some amazing deals in the shops at the moment. Picked up a gorgeous pair of evening trousers - black satin look with straight legs tapered in at the ankle - $59.99 reduced to $19.99. Had to laugh though - I'm no seamstress and of course I'm quite short - so have to pay to get them taken up - and it's costing me me $22 to get them shortened - more than the trousers cost! It's dearer because there's a little slit in the side of them at the ankle. But still a beautiful pair of pants for just over $40.

Shaz and I have to go pick up our tickets on Tuesday night so that will crank up the excitement level even further! And finally - still creeping downwards - but not very fast - but another 100g off so a total loss since October of 8.5kg. Would still like a little bit more before we go so really must make a concentrated effort these next 2 weeks.

Right possums - now you've heard it all - have a brilliant week.
Love Z xx

Celebrations and Stresses

2010-06-06T12:32:00.000+10:00

Sorry I've been MIA again - life is just chaotic at the moment - doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. OK so what's been happening. Last time I posted I said that I'd just had confirmation to go to Brisbane with my manager for the MSQ Training Awards dinner and as those of you who know me on Facebook already know - WE WON!!!! Terri (to the right of me in the picture) and I were soooo excited - I think you can tell by our faces in the picture below.

Work is still crazy busy - can't remember if I've mentioned that amongst all my usual workload I'm currently organising an awards and graduation evening for about 350 people. There will be the presentations followed by drinks and finger food - so of course lots and lots of organising - invites to go out, RSVPs to manage, trophies to source, gifts to source, decorations to organise, venue details to organise - sound, lighting, bar arrangements, then there's the catering and liaising with Community Relations to make sure all our protocols meet company standard and are right for all the 'invited guests'. None of this would normally faze me - provided I have adequate time to prepare and do it properly - but when you have to go from whoa to go in a just under four weeks everything takes on a whole new aspect of urgency. I'd a couple of sleepless nights at the beginning of the week - trying to get the invites out then trying to source a new gift when the one we thought we'd do turned out to be a bit ordinary looking when we saw it in the flesh. So there I am ringing round suppliers - asking for ideas - need 100 of whatever it is and in less then 3 weeks and of course I'm trying to meet a budget - which initially I hadn't been given details of - bit hard to know what you're looking for when you don't know how much you can spend!!! Anyway about mid morning Thursday it started to fall into place. Still lots of potential for dramas yet but at least I start this week with things organised thus far.

We went out for dinner last Saturday night with some friends to the local Thai restaurant - wonderful meal. Here's Bloss and I above.

Yesterday Shaz and I went to Rockhampton for the day - one of the chemists up there has a huge perfume and make up sale every year and it started yesterday. So we got a few bargains there - I wanted some small bottles of perfume for going on our trip - don't like having to take the normal sized bottles as they weigh so much. Then we went to the shopping centre and I got some real bargains - some gorgeous really high black shoes - I do love high heels! and these were reduced by 30%. Then I wanted a LBD - I have a little black dress which is good for summer but I wanted one with sleeves which would be more suitable for winter. I knew what I wanted - something simple - no tizzy bits - that I could change the look of with a few accessories. And I walked into Katies and there it was - exactly what I was looking for - tried it on and it looks amazing - and the best bit - they had 50% off everything in the store so I got it for $30!!!! I'm not posting a picture yet - I'll be wearing it to the Awards function in a couple of weeks so will get a picture then and post it. I also managed to get a lovely white top reduced from $80 to $40, and a neat little silk jacket in a sort of oyster shade and it was half price too. And then there was the 2 pairs of earrings - already reduced and with a buy one get on free deal thrown in. So a brilliant day.

Had been having a few drinks last weekend and could see the scales starting to jump around so I pulled my head in at the beginning of last week and I'm down another 300g so feeling good about that. I scrapped all the challenge lists on my side bar - I'd kind of lost count of what I'd done where and so I'll just keep a tally of my total loss since last October.

Decided to have a bit of a play in Picasa this morning and have come up with a new header picture for our upcoming trip - think it looks quite flash really.

So that's you all up to date. Have a great week - I have only 20 more days at work till I go on leave - scary when I think of all I've got to do in that time frame - but then I'll be really ready for my holiday won't I?

Take care possums
Love Z xx

Nothing but the Truth

2010-05-25T17:40:00.000+10:00

Interesting title? Bet you all wondered what was coming didn't you. Actually it's the name of the show we went to see on Saturday night - fantastic night with Joe Camillieri, Grace Knight, Normie Rowe and Frankie J Holden - a trip down memory lane and lots of laughs. It was a spur of the minute decision on Friday lunchtime. Friend Shelley popped into my office and were discussing what to do on the weekend - it was our 7th wedding anniversary on Saturday so we wanted to go out somewhere. Anyway in idle conversation we checked out what was on at the Entertainment Centre and there it was so I hopped on line bought and printed the tickets, booked a pre-theatre meal at the Brasserie and we were all set.

It was a busy and exciting week - Clive came back on Wednesday night so had all the troops over for tea on Wednesday night - Tiff and I had organised a cake for him since he won't be here for his 30th birthday - we took him totally by surprise!! On Thursday I got an email saying that a submission I had prepared for an industry training award for large employer of the year had made it to the finals - first time I had put one of these together so I'm pretty stoked about that - the finals are this Wednesday so will let you know how we went. After work on Thursday I had an appointment to get my new ring valued along with a few other bits and pieces - holy hell did I get a shock - my ring is worth double what it cost me already and my other pieces had increased significantly. Friday night I took Clive into town as he was going out with friends then staying at Grant and Tiff's before flying out again on Saturday morning. I stopped off at the Indian restaurant and got takeaway for us. Saturday I 've already talked about and then Sunday night we went out for tea with friends. By the time I got home I had a pain in my lower abdomen and had a rotten night with cramps, nausea and finally the frequent visits to the loo in the early hours of the morning so I had yesterday off work. Was back today but tummy still making very peculiar noises and generally unsettled. Seems there's a gastro virus doing the rounds.

So weightwise I'm actually down a further 200g - I got shot of last week's little hiccup and a tad more besides but having to watch very carefully after all that eating out - although had tandoori lamb chops and a smidgin of saffron rice so not too bad. Had grilled fish and salad on Sat night and chicken mignon with mashed potatoes on Sunday night so nothing too drastic but of course a few wines each night and therein lies the problem as I well know!! However didn't eat much yesterday with the funny tummy and not that much today either.

Since I started this post I've had a call from my manager to say she's had the OK from our GM for both of us to go to the Industry Training Awards dinner in Brisbane tomorrow night. She's flying down in the morning for the conference but I'm in the midst of coordinating a 3 day training course and need to be there tomorrow morning so I'm flying down in the afternoon and will join her to go to the dinner then we'll both fly up on Thursday morning - so keep your fingers tightly crossed.

And now a couple of pics

Clive with his cake

I love my uncle!

Such a cutie this boy!

Now you may remember last October I had a big bargain shopping day and showed you all my off season reductions - this is one of them - this was Saturday night before heading off to the theatre.

And that's this week's news - hope you all have a wonderful one.

Love Z xx