www.flickr.com

nothing because it has to be connected to my computer to work, grrr


prawn cocktail crisps

pilchards on toast (you can get pilchards there but they just don't taste the same)

decent tv

jaffa cakes

Greggs pasties

proper beer (as in Black Sheep, or Timothy Taylor's Landlord, or Cwrw Haf, the list goes on...)

Monday, April 28, 2008

clothes shopping

I accomplished a miracle this weekend - I managed to get Graham into Cairns Central and not only go into clothes shops but actually TRY ON THE CLOTHES before buying them, a miracle in itself.

So, we've got him kitted out for the wedding which is a worry off my mind.

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Thursday, April 24, 2008

Thank god for ANZAC day

I really don't think I could cope with another day of work this week :/

Hooray for ANZAC day :)

On a slightly more serious note

Hooray for ANZAC day lest we forget.
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Difficult weekend

This weekend is not one I would willingly repeat and I'm not going to post about it because it's not really my business to do so.

I will say one thing however. My future in-laws are the nicest, most generous, caring, welcoming, family I could have hoped for.

In extremely difficult circumstances where I could easily have been overlooked, I was treated as one of the family and not once made to feel that I was in the way or that it was awkward to have me there.

I think, in the scheme of things, I'm really, really lucky.
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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Diet update no. 2

I know you've all been weighting (sorry, bad joke) for this weeks weigh in.* I know I have.

I've been a little naughty this week and have had a couple of glasses of wine (I still have half a bottle left a week after I bought it so I really do mean a couple) but other than that I've been sticking religiously to the diet.

I was getting a bit worried that I hadn't lost anything this week but I was worrying for nothing. Another 1.4kg has vanished into the ether. Woohoo!

I've can't believe myself though, for the first time in my life I've started to actually look at the labels on sauces and stuff. I can't believe the difference between 2 foods labelled as the same thing! How can they be so different?! There's one pesto sauce I'm supposed to be able to have (luckily it's Sacla, which was the one I always had anyway) but my local supermarket doesn't have it all the time so I had a look at some of the others. I was shocked!

Anyway, if this keeps up I'll have to go on the maintenance program instead or I'll get lost in my dress!

*ye gods and little fishes, I'm starting to sound like I'm on the Biggest Loser, eek!

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Weekend

I had a lovely weekend.

Graham worked quite a bit of Saturday which left me free to go shoe shopping (and after 3 hours I finally managed to find 1 pair of shoes that fitted). hopefully I won't have to do that again in a hurry! The problem was I found loads that I liked but there were sales on and there just weren't any pairs in my size, grr!

I also bought my wedding ring. I had been trying to wait to get Graham to come along with me to try on rings but I eventually gave up as I was cutting it a bit close. As it was, the first jewellers I tried would have had to order the ring in and that would have taken 4 weeks. With 5 weeks to the wedding I thought that that might be cutting it a wee bit close.

Anyway, the next jewellers I tried were lovely and helpful and I got me a ring that they're keeping safe hold of until just before the wedding. yay!

On the Sunday we went for a drive down to Mission Beach. What I can't understand is, if you're going to sunbathe topless on public beach, why would you choose to set yourself up right next to where the cars park and therefore in the path of absolutely everyone?!

In the evening I rang my sister-in-law to wish her happy birthday and got told by a happy little 2 1/2 year old that they were having a 'par-tay' for mummy because it was her 'birfday'. According to my brother, he's been going on about how they had to have cake and candles for mummy for days :)

Anyway, all in all I had a lovely weekend, though talking to them made me want to jump on plane and go and see everyone. Still, not long now before most of them are here!

I do wish my brother and sister-in-law could have made it though, it won't quite be the same without them. I'll just have to make sure that lots of photos are taken for them.

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Friday, April 11, 2008

Shopping stress

Tomorrow I'm going to brave Cairns Central Shopping Centre and go shoe shopping.

Now, traditionally shoe shopping is not one of my favourite activities, rare as it is to

a) find shoes in my size that
b) fit and
c) don't make my feet look even larger

This is harder than it sounds, trust me.

But, my work shoes are rapidly disintergrating* and I really need a new pair of flip flops, or 2, well a pair I can go fishing in therefore cheap and plastic and a pair I could conceivably wear out say to a pub or restaurant, therefore not plastic and not so cheap.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and did I mention it's also the school holidays and the shops are HEAVING?

*and since the incident with the mud while running to the bus and a few walks in 30 degree heat and occasional rain are starting to give off a distressing aroma
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Thursday, April 10, 2008

Diet Update No 1

I'm in shock. Completely.

I've been on this diet a week so today was my first weigh in. I've tried to be really good and so have cut out the wine, I've been drinking my 2 litres of water a day. I'm not so good at getting the 'palm size protein' the right size so I generally have a little bit more meat than I'm supposed to (naughty me *slap on wrist*) and I've been having my fruit. I've even said no when there's been cake here at work.

I feel healthier and Graham's been telling me that I've lost weight but I couldn't really see it myself. So imagine my shock when I stepped on the scales today.

I was so shocked I had to step off and then back on again to see if I'd read it wrong. I hadn't.

In 1 week, I've lost 2.7kg.

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

I may even skip my afternoon fruit and have a glass of wine this evening to celebrate :)

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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Work issues

I'm not going to bitch about work, people in it or anything like that because I really don't want to get dooced.

I will, however, say one thing.

AAAAAAARGH!

There, I feel somewhat better now.

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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

belongings

I didn't post about it at the time because I was stressed about leaving home, and pissed off at the removal company and then I was here and with Graham and it just seemed petty but at the time I was seriously pissed off with the removal company that was shifting my stuff across the hemispheres.

Anyway, it's early November 2007. I have my visa, I've left my job, I'm here, there and everywhere visiting friends and relatives that I won't see for several months or more. In between all this, I managed to arrange for the removal company to deliver me some boxes so I could pack my stuff up.

Unfortunately, due to a complete clash of schedules, the only day we can both manage is Tuesday 6th November. Great, sounds wonderful. Only I leave for Heathrow Airport at 8am Wednesday 7th November so not much room for stuff ups. And removal firms being removal firms they couldn't give me a time more accurate that 'between 9am and 5pm'.

No worries, even if it's delivered at 5pm all my stuff is in nice piles, ready to go into boxes, it would only take me an hour or so to pack and it's all sorted.

Mum's house doesn't actually have a name sign so my aunt and I painted the name onto a bit of cardboard and pinned it to the gate, just to make certain they found it.

9am...

10am...

At 10.30am I rang the courier firm actually delivering the boxes. I expressed my worries that the driver wouldn't find the house and wanted to give them directions. 'Oh no, we don't need that, don't worry, he hasn't got to you yet, your stuff is still logged as being in the truck, it's shouldn't be too long now'. Just in case, I gave them my phone number to give to the driver, just in case he did get lost.

At 1.30pm I rang them again. 'Has he got lost?' 'Oh no, he's just not got to you yet, don't worry'. 'It's just that I'm leaving for Australia tomorrow and I really need those boxes. Did you give him my number? No? Well, here it is again...'.

At 4.30pm I rang them again. 'Where the hell's my stuff?' 'Oh, the driver knocked at 11am and there was no answer ...' 'Well I was in all day so that's not bloody true' '...so he's brought it back to the depot.' 'WHAT?!'

I was understandably upset. Apparently he'd gone to a converted chapel up the road because 'it looked like a house with our name should'. Why couldn't they tell me this when I'd rung them before when the situation could have been fixed? Just thinking about it now makes my blood boil.

To cap it all off, when he redelivered the stuff on the Thursday (my sainted mother packed it all for me) he did the same thing again! Thankfully our neighbour was in this time and directed him to the right house. Bloody idiot.

Anyway, fast forward 4 months. It's early March 2008. After several emails telling me that my belongings were going to be in Brisbane on increasingly later dates due to the ships being delayed due to storms I get a phone call from the Australian removal group handling things at this end. Customs have a query about my forms. I explain and everything's ok. I asked how long quarantine will take and I'm told that it could be up to 4 weeks, but they'll let me know when it's on its way. It's getting closer!

Fast foward to the present day. It having been a month since I last spoke to the removal company, I thought I'd better give them a ring and see what the hell is going on. 'Oh, it got put on a train to Cairns yesterday. It should be there on Thursday so if you give the depot up there a ring on Friday you can organise delivery or pickup'. Right. And you were going to tell me this when?

All I want is my stuff. If I manage smooth delivery of it at the end of this week it will be a bloody miracle. I've also heard horror stories of containers leaking and stuff going all rotten and horrible so I'm now really concerned for my books and, well, everything really!

Keep your fingers crossed for me...

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Monday, April 07, 2008

Memoirs of a dieter

I have a confession to make.

Against all my principles I've gone on a diet.

A proper, sign up, drinks shakes instead of meals and get weighed sort of diet.

Fear not, I still fit into my wedding dress, it's just that I have put on weight since coming back to Australia and it really was showing no signs of stopping piling up and I felt fat.

Our diet really is horrendous, given that Graham won't eat most vegetables they don't make major appearances at our dinner table. He always has a cooked breakfast, which is really addictive, and for lunch I either had a sandwich (with a huge chunk of bread because it's really difficult to cut very fresh bread i.e. 10 minutes out of the oven, with our breadknife) or sushi (so, rice) or noodles. Unfortunately the discovery that Noodle-box in Cairns Central Shopping Centre did wonderfully tasty takeaway noodles and stuff did nothing to help stay a proper weight.

I know I could exercise and I did try and keep up with the swimming which made me feel great but then Graham's work start time changed so my morning routine did and I didn't seem to have enough time. Then it was raining and I HATE swimming in the rain.
I also hate fishing grubs and bugs and stuff out.

Graham brought home an abs machine from work one day but I just can't get myself motivated enough to use it often enough to be of any use. He did promise to buy me an exercise bike* which I could at least ride whilst watching tv or reading but it never materialised.

So, I've become a disciple of Mr Tony Ferguson and since last week I have:
  • a shake for breakfast (I have soy ones so they don't taste as milky)
  • a soup for lunch (sometimes, I put vegetables in it)
  • 2 pieces of fruit a day (allowed fruit that is, so no melon, grump)
  • a minimum of 3 cups of vegetables a day (allowed ones that is, I'm only allowed carrots 3 times a week, go figure!)
  • a palm size piece of protein (chicken, lamb, any lean meat)
  • and 2 litres of water a day (this is really, really hard. I've got a litre bottle of water on my desk - just keep sipping, just keep sipping...)
  • No carbs. At all. (so no bread, no rice, no potatoes, no nothing)
  • a treat of 2 glasses of wine a week (if I only have 1 piece of fruit the days I have a glass)

It sounds really difficult, but actually, it's not. The hardest thing is smelling the bread cooking every morning and not having garlic bread. The 3 cups of veges is quite a lot of food and I have to have it at dinner due to being at work during the day so my evening meal is lots of veges and a bit of meat and there are some stir in sauces that I can have so I don't actually miss the rice or potatoes (not that I have any rice at the moment, given that Graham in an experimental phase used nearly a kilo of basmati rice as burley (something you put in the water to entice the fish) and I hadn't got around to buying some more).

They also have jelly which I can eat as much as I want as so yay!

When I signed up, they told me I could lose 8kg in 6 weeks. This seems a bit extreme to me and I'll keep you posted on how I do. Not that I want to lose that much, or I'd get lost in the dress!


*because I'm not stupid enough to try and ride a bike on these roads, Cairns has the highest bicycle accident rate in Queensland I think, mind you, seeing how some people ride I'm not surprised. The Asians in particular like to go down the wrong side of the road, the wrong way round roundabouts and just not pay attention to what's going on around them at any given time)

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Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Fixed?

I think the endless Wednesday may have had something to do with Javascript playing up. Still, clearing my internet browser did the trick hopefully so yay!

On other yay news, we did get the car! It's lovely! The CD player doesn't work (grr) but that should be covered under a statutary 3 month warranty and it's going in tomorrow to get checked over :)

Graham hasn't forgiven me (possibly never will, I can see him in 20 years time regaling our children with stories of how mum made him get rid of his beloved Suby...) but I think I can live with it :)

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