Busy Week

It's been an incredibly busy week chez Zanna but will say that at the end of it I felt I had managed to achieve lots. Work has been just so busy - lots of project son the go, several VIPs visiting plus my assignment for my Dip Bus was almost due. I haven't really enjoyed this unit - the presenter for the workshop wasn't very inspiring, the subject Continuous Improvement is OK but for our organisation because we use Six Sigma and Lean (which won't mean anything to you unless your organisation happens to use these business tools) the focus of the unit is these two business tools - which happen to be brilliant if you're actually involved in the process side of things - like making aluminium - but harder to get your head round when you're involved in service and support! I normally come home after the three day workshop and do the bulk of my assignment so that by the time the coaching day comes up - about half way through the 6 weeks we given to do the assignment - I just take on board the advice from our facilitator and tweak it all a bit and it's ready to hand in. Of course this time we had the 3 day workshop then the very next day we took off for Vietnam so by the time got back from there it was coaching day and I hadn't even looked at it, then I was sick for a couple of days and work was full on and I was starting to feel very negative about the whole thing. However this past week I had a couple of sessions with the team who are helping me with my project and also a couple of meetings with my boss (who happens to be a Six Sigma Black Belt (a guru) so I got lots of direction and assistance from him and the net result was that I wound up my assignment on Friday afternoon at work - meaning I didn't have to spend all weekend finishing it off. Phew - lovely feeling. I also had my annual work performance assessment this week - the first with my new boss - it was really good and he only had good things to say about me (in fact most of them were actually excellent) so that always spurs you on when the going's getting a bit tough. Friday night we went to a Cheese and Wine night with some of the team Bloss works with - lots of fun. I'm trying to keep off alcohol as much as possible so I opted to drive so only had tiny sips during the tasting and two half glasses during the rest of the evening. The photo below shows Jess who raided the hostess's hat collection and I - we were all trying on hats - I adore hats!

Saturday morning was the final day of footy for Josh so we went along to watch him play. Curtis was in a foul mood but I managed to catch one pic of him looking reasonable happy

Below we have Josh intent on the game from the bench - the entire team take it in turns to spend five minutes or so off the field

His mum had said to him to make sure when he was presented with his trophy that he turned and looked at her and smiled so she could get a photo - so like the good guy he is - he did!

No 2 son is back - he got here last Sunday afternoon - very sick - think (in fact know as he freely admits it) he'd been burning the candle at both ends for the past 3 months and it had all caught up on him - end result a visit to the doctor and a diagnosis of bronchitis. He's coming good now and he and No 1 son have gone to Melbourne this weekend to their step brother's wedding. Be nice for the two of them to spend time on their own and also to catch up with their Dad. He also has a girlfriend in Brazil - first serious sounding relationship he's had in years - no shortage of female company but nothing beyond a couple of nights out. This girl looks and sounds delightful and of course this means that he's trying to source more work in Brazil but the commissioning job he had in mind for October has fallen through so he's having to explore other avenues and countries which might mean that in the short term he'll get Luana (gorgeous name) to come here for a couple of weeks. Her mother is Brazilian and father English so she's bilingual and has travelled around the world a fair bit with her father's work - went to an English speaking school in Portugal and spent two years in Miami. She's just finished a business degree at Uni and is looking forward to using her qualification - she's been working on this project for the past couple of years (the project Clive was working on) as a bilingual secretary to see her through uni but she agreed she'd stay to the end of the project which is running way behind schedule so she's 'over it' now and can't wait to start looking for more challenging work. So I'm really happy for Clive - and it looks like Brazil might come rattling up the list of places we want to visit!!

Health and exercise - well like I said I've been keeping away from the alcohol all week - had a couple on Friday night as I said and another couple last night but will stop again now. Last week the scales stayed the same but given the birthday weekend I was quite happy with that. Doesn't look like anything exciting happening so far this week but weigh day is tomorrow. I've been going to the gym three days a week for the last two weeks. I do a circuit programme Monday and Friday mornings and cardio on Wednesday. Worked quite hard on Wednesday and had lots of pain for the next two days so Friday morning was a struggle but all good again now and ready to go again tomorrow. I'm finding that getting up half an hour earlier and going then is working out pretty well for me - although I'm finding it best to come home for a shower before work rather than showering there - it gives me the opportunity to do something with my hair which otherwise would look dreadful for the whole day at work and I hate that!

Just about finished all the renovations downstairs and guess what - the upstairs shower is leaking and it's coming through the nice newly painted ceiling downstairs! Give you the shxts. Renovating the upstairs bathroom was on the master plan but not till next year - my mum, sister and brother in law are coming for a month over Christmas so thought we'd leave that particular mess and upheaval till after they'd been. But it's not to be - so need to get things moving this week to get the job underway.

And that my lovelies is what my week has been like - a biggy but a goody!

Love Z xx

Birthday Girl

Hi peoples, Just a quick hello from me today - too busy enjoying myself. It's my birthday today and I'm having a lovely day. So far have had a lovely card and voucher for a facial from Bloss, then the florist arrived with a gorgeous arrangement of flowers - isn't he a love!! I've had phone calls from my grandson and both elder and younger sons - the youngest one from the airport in Brisbane - he's arriving home at 1pm this afternoon after his 3 month spell in Brazil - and isn't that just the loveliest thing to have happen on our birthday. It's been a great weekend so far - started with mudcake with the team at work on Friday - we always have a cake for people's birthdays. Then yesterday I had lunch with a couple of friends at the Yacht Club - and while there got a beautiful pair of gold earrings from Shaz - my bestie. Last night Bloss and I went for dinner to a local restaurant where I got a single red rose and a balloon! Tonight Grant, Tiff and the boys and Clive, Craig and I are heading off to one of the Chinese restaurants in town for tea - so how's that for celebrating in style! In other news - got back to work for a couple of days then was sick - have had a good run this winter but finally got caught! So was off work for 2 days. But fine again now. This meant that I had to delay my start at the gym - but only by a couple of days. So I started last Monday and managed Mon, Wed and Fri - and the timing fits well (go when the gym opens at 5.30am and am finished in time to shower and be at work for starting time at 7am) so planning on this becoming a routine part of life from now on. Weightwise since coming back from Vietnam I'm now down 1.6kgs with tomorrow being weigh in day again - not sure how that will go - have been a bit wicked this weekend. Although on reflection not really evil - had a couple of wines on Friday night and last night with Bloss and shared an entree of battered cuttlefish with chilli plum sauce - always a favourite at that restaurnt, had chicken breast stuffed with a yummy cheese (forget the name of it) and chive sauce, and then Bloss and I shared lemon meringue cheesecake - and that was to die for! But other than that meal everything else has been on track so shouldn't be too bad! And now a few photos for you - At the yacht club yesterday with a friend My gorgeous flowers from Bloss This was the painting I got a while ago which was destined for the entry hall once the tiling had been done. And this is the painting we bought in Vietnam which I just picked up from the framer's yesterday - really happy with it. I just love abstract paintings - you can see so many different things in them.

OK - that's it for me for this week - hope everyone is having fun. Take care Z xx