Monday weigh in

Monday:

Yesterday we saw Dr Strange which I thought was pretty good for a superhero movie - not usually my kind of thing. Rated M but ok for my kids.

Quite a few people in the extended family are sick at the moment - just with colds I think - but we didn't have a get-together yesterday and we haven't seen either of the two babies yet! Oh well, totally understandable with this bug going round. Aiden still has a runny nose but Tim and Jas seem ok now. Somehow I avoided getting it! I had a couple of days when I thought I was coming down with something - woke with a bit of a headache or aching back - but then felt fine later in the day. Maybe all this healthy eating?

This morning I weighed 80.2 kg, that is a loss of 1.0 kg this week and 3.6 kg over the three weeks I've been doing the BSD (blood sugar diet - it's based on actual studies done on diabetics). I've got through so many temptations already! I'm feeling quite strong. Next week will be a challenge, it's Aiden's 10th birthday on Thursday week. We'll have an extended family dinner before it, his favourite foods on his actual birthday, and a kids' party at Laser Underworld on the following weekend so it will be a whole week of temptations. I plan to have a small piece of birthday cake, and that is all. I'm a bit hesitant even about that. At least I'll be making it myself - he's asked for a lemon/lime cheesecake so I know it will be high fat and low sugar (which is good on this WOE [way of eating, for if you don't like the word diet]).

I had a bit of a sad afternoon. It's 18 months since my father's death and today I got the cheque for my share of the inheritance. He didn't have much, of course any money is welcome, but knowing that it is a result of his death makes it hard. I can't just think "woo hoo a bit of extra spending money!" It was worse last year when I got the money from mum (my parents died a few months apart, after being divorced 40 years, both from cancer) because it allowed us to afford moving to Sydney where real estate is much more expensive than where we were. The irony was that mum would have loved me to live closer when she was alive, but we couldn't afford it until she died. I still feel a bit guilty and conflicted about that.

I know it's Halloween today in the US, it's not really celebrated here in Australia despite the shops trying to push us to buy costumes and decorations and cheap lollies! I went for a walk this afternoon and saw one house with a plastic skull on a fencepost, so that was a token decoration. I'll have some fun-size chocolates near the front door just in case, I used to do that in Canberra too, I think one year a group of kids knocked. I'm not sure what lollies have to do with "real" Halloween anyway. Happy Halloween if you celebrate it.

New jeans

Friday:

Every year around this time I have to buy new jeans. I wear them pretty much every day all through the cold season, only switching to something else long enough to wash them. Jeans are so comfy when you work from home! Eventually the seams start to fray and I have to go through the torture of buying a new pair. Today I found some "crop" style jeans that would be mid-calf on most people but are normal jean length on me! I am vertically challenged. I think it's the first time in my life I haven't had to have my jeans altered because of my height. I did want to wait until I'd lost some more weight but my old jeans were about to fall apart. I could squeeze into the next size down but only with a very unappealing muffin top. These ones look much better, and I can sit down in them!

My old jeans were getting so saggy and baggy, and they never really looked that good to start with as I couldn't find any that suited my apple-shaped figure last year. Or the year before. It's really nice to feel like I look better than when I walked into the shop.

Samuel

Thursday:

The second of the four pregnant ladies in my family had her baby two days ago. Welcome to little Samuel. We haven't seen him yet, or Lucy who is a week and a half old (their daddies are brothers so they will be cousins very close in age!), and now this house seems to be plague centre; Tim and the kids have runny nose and sore throat and today I have a heavy head and aching back so I assume I've caught it. We hope to see the two babies on the weekend but obviously not if we are germy, no way I would knowingly pass a cold onto a newborn.

I went for a walk today to get the kids some throat lozenges. Worked on my book. Didn't take the kids to Acrogym - they are still going to school (it's just a cold) but I thought extra exercise probably wasn't best.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be

Wednesday:

I felt good yesterday after a good night's sleep, I had a bad night last night so guess what! Feel tired and grumpy and lonely and yuck today. Being well-rested is so important. I didn't make any plans for today because I was expecting the tree guy to call me confirm he was coming back today to finish cleaning up, but no call and no visit so I hung around for nothing.

I did some editing, housework, reading, mooched around. Feel aggrieved over nothing. Hopefully a good night tonight will fix my mood!

I'm re-reading all of Robin Hobb's Fitz and the Fool books (three trilogies, four if you count The Liveship Traders trilogy, and the very last book in the series hopefully soon to be published), this morning I put book one back on the shelf and pulled out book two - and realised book three is missing. So either it was lost in the move, or more likely we lent it to someone and never got it back. In fact now I think about it I'm sure that is the case and I've noticed it missing before but hoped it would turn up. It clearly hasn't and I will have to buy a replacement which is so annoying because the cover art is almost sure not to match the rest of the set, my copy is 20 years old and there will be new editions by now. I don't mind lending people new books but old ones are irreplaceable!

Tim and the kids are all sick with a cold, but still functioning.

Did it work?

Tuesday:

The real question about my operation is, did it work? Did it do anything to help my various issues? Well I feel like I won't know for sure until I've had a full month of my cycle as there are definitely times of the month that are worse than others and I haven't experienced the bad weeks yet. But so far, after the slight ache from the surgery faded, I think I have improved a lot. I haven't been feeling any pelvic pain, even if I lie on my stomach. Before, even in the good weeks, if I tried lying on my stomach I would get pain within seconds and have to turn over. Now, I can even fall asleep lying on my stomach, which isn't so great because I then wake up later with my damaged shoulders aching BUT my pelvis still doesn't hurt after however long. So that is fantastic.

I am feeling really well right now, last night I had an excellent sleep, no pain in my pelvis, no pain in my foot (which has continued wart free ever since the apple cider vinegar worked when nothing else did). Some of that is from the op, the rest is from two straight weeks of eating healthy. Lots of vegetables, some fruit, meat, full fat dairy, nuts, olive oil. More fish than I usually eat (three serves last week!) Very little sugar (I would say none, but I've had two squares of dark choc and also bought salsa which had some sugar), no alcohol, low carb - I had some toast when sick and have had small serves of potato and of quinoa a couple of times but other than that no bread, rice, pasta etc. I mostly get my carbs from vegetables. After a four day stall my weight dropped dramatically since yesterday so week three is going well.

I'm already looking ahead to Christmas, I want to indulge but at the same time don't want to undo all the good I've done! I don't know if I do well with trying for moderation. I think the plan will be two days "off" (Christmas and Boxing Day, both of which I will be hosting up to 20 people) then get straight back on plan. Actually I don't tend to overeat when I'm tired and busy looking after other people. I remember last year I certainly didn't stuff myself on Christmas Day, but the next morning while waiting for people to arrive I ate most of a family sized bag of Burger Rings! Something to avoid. We are hosting two years in a row partly because we have the most suitable house, but also last year was our first year here near everyone, and this year three of the other families will have brand-new babies. I love hosting, anyway. But it is a lot of work!

The pool is also moving forward. The builder, Angelo, came out today to look at the site. The previous person, Malcolm, was I suppose mainly the salesman! He did a good job at that, considering we picked his company. Anyway, Angelo is a bit concerned about getting the excavator through our narrow side yard (has always been a potential problem) but I think it will be ok. I've been warned of possible damage to plants, and I need to cut a few back hard. And they should start excavating in two weeks! I'm not sure how long the excavation/pouring concrete part takes but I know that after that they have to leave it for three weeks to cure before finishing. Still looks to be on track for Christmas. It might just be a pool with some paving around it at that stage, but it will be a pool! Tim and I will have a lot of work planting in the heat of summer before it will look really nice, we want it surrounded by tropical plants for a real holiday feel.

It was supposed to be my Book Club today and I was looking forward to it - I actually really liked the book! But Angelo was a bit late, then I had lunch and forgot all about it, then suddenly remembered but it would have been nearly over by then and I decided not to rush up to the library just for the last 10 minutes. I walked up instead, lovely day outside, and arrived just as everyone was standing up to leave. We had a bit of a chat as we borrowed next month's book but that was all. At least I got some exercise in today.

Monday weigh in

Monday:

This morning I weighed 81.2 kg, down 0.3 kg from last week. Not much, considering I was very "good" with my diet. I did go a bit over calories on a few days I suppose. And didn't exercise all week. Oh well. It's a loss. I was actually down to 80.5 kg mid-week but went up again.

Not happy with my whole appearance at the moment. Aside from being fat, I don't know what to do with my hair and my face has these deep lines from the corners of my mouth curving down so it's like I have a permanent sad/grumpy face. I'm hoping once the chubby cheeks get smaller those grooves will be less noticeable. I just don't feel at all attractive. I've always though I was a reasonably pretty person, but not now.

Well, I am doing something about it. Two weeks under my shrinking belt.

Aquarium and waxworks

Sunday:

Yesterday we had a family day at the Sydney aquarium and our version of Madame Tussaud's waxworks. Ping had a voucher that allowed her to take ten people so we had six adults, my two children and two toddlers. We've been there before not that long ago but it was mostly good, I'll get to the bad in a minute.

The aquarium includes a couple of those big tanks that you can walk under so the fish are swimming all around and over you.

 The waxworks were pretty convincing. Here are the kids hobnobbing with royalty...

And me with Katy Perry. The crown and wig are props, they had lots of those for photos. Now I think about it, I'm a little grossed out that I put on a wig that probably a hundred people have had on their greasy heads every day for year. Euw.

We had lunch at Italian restaurant, I had grilled fish. Still being good! Lots of unhealthy snacks had come out earlier and we also stopped for morning tea, but I said no and told everyone I was having no junk until Christmas. I'd brought some peanuts with me, I don't usually have morning tea these days but I knew we'd have a late lunch since everyone else had morning tea junk, so I was very glad I'd brought the nuts so I could last until then.

As we were walking back to our car after lunch we saw a lot of people staring at this building (tall glass one) and noticed a lot of ropes hanging down from one of those dark alcoves near the top. There was a sign saying this weekend only you had the chance to abseil down 44 floors! The little figure at the top is someone just starting their abseil. How terrifying! I abseiled a few times as a teenager, but nothing like so high as that.

Now for the bad of the day. The lesser was that we drove in to the city, because of delays and trackworks on the train (we almost never drive in due to traffic and difficulty parking). We got there ok but on the way home we got a bit lost and missed our way three times, going round and after about 20 mins literally driving past the parking station we'd started in! Our GPS was a bit confused about whether we were on the street or down in the cross-city tunnel (we were in the tunnel), and we missed a turn-off, and I was trying to navigate with my phone instead, and it was just a frustrating shambles. But we got home safely after rather longer than we'd expected.

The worse thing was that on the way into the city in the morning I started needing to urinate. I've talked before about having a small bladder but the drive was only 45 minutes, I'd gone to the toilet before we left and hadn't drunk much with breakfast, there was no reason for the suddenly urgency. We were on a busy highway with nowhere to stop until we got to our destination. Over 15 minutes or so it became extremely painful, I was getting desperate. By the time we got to our multi-story parking lot I felt that I literally could not wait until we found a toilet somewhere and I just crouched behind the car to pee! Luckily no one was about. Now that is something I never thought I'd do. How embarrassing.

Wasteland

Thursday:

The tree demolition team were here most of the day, six men for six hours. Very very noisy; chainsaws and wood chippers and stump grinders. And looked dangerous at times!

We were left with this wasteland:

Both Tim and I felt quite guilty about the poor trees who had been here a lot longer than we had. Once the pool is in we'll be able to do a lot of planting, but it will take a while to grow.

GP

Wednesday:

I saw my GP (general practitioner/doctor) this morning, all good, she just told me what to look out for with infections. Really lovely day outside, I need to get out in it more. I chose instead to stay inside and actually get some writing/editing work done.

I tried to reheat the rest of that broccoli-base pizza for lunch. For some reason I found it disgusting. Nearly gagged after the first mouthful. So I had a tin of tuna and some vegetables instead.

Tree people are coming tomorrow to clear our backyard. That will be interesting.

Lucy

Tuesday:

One of the four heavily pregnant women in my family had her baby on Sunday (or Sat night maybe) and we just found out her name is Lucy. We haven't seen her yet, apparently she is a little small, not sure why as she is not early and her mother had gestational diabetes which is more likely to result in a large baby. I don't really have any details. Anyway, she is doing fine but still in hospital and we haven't seen her yet except for a cute photo. Crossed fingers everything works out well.

Another mostly-rest day for me but I did get out and do the grocery shopping and I'm fine really. I've made follow-up appointments with my GP and gyno.

I tried an interesting recipe for lunch - pizza with the base made out of broccoli. It took a long time but I suppose the dough kind does too. I food-processed the broccoli until it was rice sized, steamed it in the microwave, let it cool, mixed in an egg and some cheese, flattened it out, cooked it for 25 mins, added sauce cheese and shredded chicken and cooked it again. By this time it was 2:00 pm and it wasn't really seeming worth it! The crispy bits round the edge were pretty yummy but the whole middle was too moist and fell apart. I'd thought it was dry enough and didn't do the "squeeze the steamed broccoli in a tea towel" step. Silly me! I could get the same flavour by cooking some broccoli with cheese on it in the oven, so not sure if I will go through all that again. Still have half left though to reheat for another lunch.

I'm still going strong on the low carb Mediterranean diet, tonight I had my first square of (70% dark) chocolate for over a week, surely a new record!

Losing

Monday:

This morning I weighed 81.5 kg, a loss of 2.3 kg from last week. That is a lot, and I'm very happy with it. I'd say it's about half from deliberate healthy eating/carb control and half from not eating much after the operation.

Feeling much better today. Not quite well enough to work - but well enough to be bored! I feel like I've been sitting around waiting for the day to end, which is a waste, but lacked energy to do more than watch TV.

Still, I continue to improve each day and expect to get back to normal any minute now.

No rush

Sunday:

I thought I would feel a lot better today but I ended up spending most of the day in bed. Weirdly bloated and a bit queasy, very tired - I slept nearly all the time in bed - and still sore throat which I'll get something for tomorrow if I need to. I'm up now, will have a small dinner and watch my Sunday night TV then back to bed early. I know my body just needs to recover more from some pretty major drugs (general anaesthetic). Not trying to rush it.

Recovery

Saturday:

Today was quiet recovery. I watched TV all morning and was very active on my internet forums on my iPad. Tired and weak, but main annoyance is my sore throat. That tube must have really scraped going down. Taking painkillers for that.

I had a nap after lunch, that was nice. Not eating much. Had a shower and got dressed late afternoon. Finally started feeling more normal around 5 pm. If only my throat would stop hurting! Maybe after another sleep. Off to bed now.

Operation day

Friday:

Morning: uterine fibroids removal day! I don't feel like I'm nervous, but I do feel a bit sick to my stomach so I guess I am! I had to fast from 7am so I got up early and forced myself to have an early breakfast even though I wasn't at all hungry at that hour, because nothing else until dinner time! Then crawled back into bed for a while. Then mooched around the house for a couple of hours. I want to get this over with. Tim has the day off to drive me around and look after me. Several family members offered to cook for us tonight, which of course was lovely of them, but it was funny they seemed surprised that Tim was quite capable of cooking a meal! I've only told a couple of people, actually. I want to be made a fuss of, but without me saying "please make a fuss of me!" Tricky.

Have to be at the hospital 11:30 for op at 1:30.

Later: well I'm actually writing this the next morning as I crashed when I got home yesterday.  I'm going to record everything I remember for my own interest.

We got to the hospital in good time and didn't have too much of a wait past my appointment to be called. The nurse asked a few questions about my health and did a pregnancy test. Fair enough, they don't want to go poking around in there then find a baby! Wrist bands with my name and details. Then back to the waiting room for an hour. I had brought a book but couldn't settle to read or concentrate on anything. Talked to Tim a bit, played with iPhone a bit, stared into space a bit.

At 12:30 they called me through and Tim went home. I put on the backless gown and paper undies and got into bed. Then another 45 min wait. I only had a sheet and thin blanket so I was a bit cold. An orderly finally came and wheeled me through the maze to outside the theatre where I was met by one of the anaesthetists. She carefully checked my identity and procedure I was here for with questions and checking my chart and wristbands. She put a warmed blanket on me which I was very grateful for because it was freezing there. Wheeled into a little alcove and met the head anaesthetist, Michael (the only name I remember). He was handsome and very charismatic! We joked around while he looked for a vein - hard to find as I was dehydrated, no water allowed since I got to hospital. No food for six hours, no water for two. Finally found one and got the cannula in.

My surgeon came in and introduced himself, someone who works with my gynaecologist (if I'd wanted her to do it I would have had to pay instead of all free). Don't remember his name either! He seemed nice though. Both he and Michael went through the whole indentity check again. I didn't mind, want them to be sure they are doing the right procedure! I was wheeled into the operating room. There were at least eight people in there! I wriggled across to the narrow operating table and was given another warmed blanket. I was fully shivering by now, partly cold and probably fear although consciously I just felt fascinated and a bit excited. I heard Michael say "let's get this started" and then I lost the next hour and a half....

[during that time they inserted a tube up through my cervix, threaded a camera and a scalpel through, and scraped off the fibroids]

I woke in post-op, slowly. Felt groggy and tired. Throat very sore. I hadn't quite realised why Michael has asked me to open my mouth wide a couple of times while he looked inside and told someone what size, but of course I had a tube down my throat while I was out. A nurse beside me commented that I was awake and held a glass of water with a straw for me, then left me for a while as I slowly woke.

Then I was wheeled back to my original ward where I fully woke up. I was allowed to get up about an hour after I first woke, and dressed, and was given a cup of tea and some cheese and crackers. Weak and a bit dizzy but not much pain. They called Tim to pick me up but he was already walking through the door with the kids! He'd headed back as soon as the kids got home from school. I found the hospital hadn't given me my scans back and had to sent someone scrubbed up into the sterile theatre to get them, while someone else's op was going on. Then we went home.

It was bad timing with peak hour traffic and took us a long time to get home. I'd been anticipating an evening sitting in front of the TV but the pain medication was wearing off and I started feeling worse and worse as we drove home. A bit sore in the abdomen, very sore throat, aching legs for some reason, weak and very tired. I stayed up only long enough to have some chicken soup then went to bed and slept for 13 hours! I did wake a couple of times and had to take some pain killers.

I bled quite a bit straight after the op but nothing since I got home.

This morning, I am feeling better, still sore and tired. Apparently general anaesthetic drugs take at least 24 hours to completely leave your system so that is this afternoon, still might be a bit groggy till then. Not sure about pain, it's not too bad. Glad to have it over with. Rest today.

Busy but boring

Wednesday:

I haven't been posting every day because I'm busy but at the same time not doing anything interesting, you know? I've got stuff to catch up on now the kids are back at school, my own editing work plus following up stuff for the pool and my dad's estate, and getting the car serviced, and general housework and other things that come up. Nothing exciting.

I've been eating healthily, drinking my water, walked yesterday. Had a headache since Monday afternoon. I've always denied that I'm addicted to sugar but what does it mean when I go through withdrawal symptoms when I stop? I'm feeling strong and determined but day three is always a bugger.

Only two days to my fibroid operation now. Can't wait. I know it won't fix everything but might at least take the pelvic pain away. Been worse this week.

I had various plans for today but after a phone call and a few emails I was diverted onto other things. It was a productive day, but not quite in the way I'd planned! The great thing is we are starting to move forward with the pool. Still have my fingers crossed it will be done by Christmas. The actual pool build doesn't take that long, but there are so many steps - interviewing various companies and choosing one, plans drawn, council approval, approval to have trees removed, getting quotes for that, finding someone to move pergola post so the equipment can get to our backyard, paying security bond in case equipment damages council property (footpath and gutters), trying to protect existing plants and structures on the way to the backyard... it's not just "hey, come and build me a pool!" But it's going to be awesome.

Carb flu

Monday:

My weight this morning was 83.8 kg, again it was higher earlier in the week but went down a bit over the weekend - seems like the wrong way round doesn't it! But I was tired and in some pain all weekend and less inclined to overeat. It was a pretty indulgent school holidays.

Back on the BSD (Blood Sugar Diet) today, which means counting calories and low carbs. I could have waited until after my operation on Friday, but surely it's better if I'm as healthy as possible for it. I'm going to give my body only healthy food this week. I should be over any "carb flu" by Friday. I already had a headache by the end of the day so hopefully I'll get the bad bit over with quickly!

The kids are back at school and I have so much to do! I got a few things done today. Not everything I wanted, but some. Shopping, editing, a few phone calls. Healthy food, lots of water. I feel like I did well.

No sleep

Saturday:

Sometimes I feel like I haven't had a good night's sleep for around 16 years. I had a bad chronic shoulder injury that meant pain for years (I couldn't work or dress myself or pretty much anything) which meant a lot of difficultly sleeping; then as that got better I had two children - the pregnancies then the babies waking during the night - then I injured my other shoulder, sleep apnoea, now I have the pelvic pain and the night sweats. Just let me get some sleep please!

Last night I woke three times with night sweats and pelvic pain. The sweats always seem associated with bad dreams full of negative emotions. Am I really so full of anger and frustration? In the dreams I am often overwhelmed with fury, I shout and swear and even want to physically hurt those I love. Very disturbing, and very hard to shake off when I wake. I've felt like that only a handful of times in my whole waking life, but in my sleep it seems I feel like that all the time now.

Tim was tired too after his week at work so we had a pleasant quiet day at home.

Secret Life of Pets

Friday:

Last official day of the school holidays, although there is still the weekend to go. Took the kids to see The Secret Life of Pets which was cute. Drank lemonade, ate chips and lollies. Feel yuck. This has been a pretty good school holiday for me, in terms of having fun (not in terms of diet!) but as usual I'll be glad to get back into my routine. I haven't written a word except here on my blog, eaten a lot of junk, I've been quite active but not in any regular way. I guess it really was a holiday for me as well as the kids, I don't always treat it that way. I often have work commitments I'm trying to fulfil. It was nice to just do whatever.

Splash

Thursday:

I sat out in the sun again (clear plastic roof in the courtyard) this morning and did more off my cross-stitch. So much easier on my eyes in good light. Here I have outlined most of one bunny.

In the afternoon I took the kids to the local pool for a couple of hours. It is a really nice renovated complex with slightly-heated (cool instead of cold) indoor pool and two outdoors, plus a gym which I am thinking of joining after my op. It is further away than the nearest one but I didn't like that one. Hmm, and more expensive too!

Jasmine and Aiden are in the foreground here, in the huge indoor pool dumping water on each other.

I was in the water with them most of the time, inventing games and competitions and trying to drag Aiden along in races against Jasmine - exhausting! I got out for the last 20 mins.

Gardening

Wednesday:

Yesterday was grocery shopping, library, gardening, sitting outside doing cross-stitch in the sun.

I've had a couple of relatively comfortable weeks but my pelvic pain is related to my hormonal cycle and is now heading back to a couple of weeks of constant discomfort plus depression. It's like having cramps and PMS but for two or three weeks in a row! While I feel like this, I have to remind myself it is temporary hormones and I should not:
*Leave my family and move to a Rapunzel Tower somewhere.
*Decide my book is rubbish and delete the file.
*Declutter my life and throw out a lot of things I still need and love.
*Make a drastic decision about my hair.
*Spend money on random stuff.
*Say anything at all to anyone while I'm feeling emotional.

Just over a week to operation. I will try not to whine too much here.

Today included a walk and some vigorous gardening. We've really got the front yard tidied up. The "green waste" (garden clippings) bin went out yesterday, full, and is overflowing again now with a fortnight before it gets collected again. Lots of work!

I finally got around to buying a frame for a cross stitch sampler I made some years ago... apparently in 1999 going by the date sewn into it! That was the year I met Tim.

I still like this and I think I will hang it somewhere.

Sand

Monday:

My weigh-in didn't go as badly as expected, 83.8kg (up 0.3 kg since last week), it was a kg higher than that only a couple of days ago. I ate a lot less yesterday despite being surrounded by junk, my body (and mouth ulcer) were just saying "no thanks!".

We planned to go to the beach today, the morning was gloomy and grey so we didn't leave home until it cleared up. By the time we got there it was lunchtime and after we had a nice lunch it was after 1:00pm, the hottest part of the day. Not great for pale skin. We only stayed on the beach for half an hour. The sun was very hot (I draped a towel over my legs again) but the water was freezing, Tim and I only got wet feet and even the kids didn't go far in. The whole lunch/beach experience was nice, half an hour on the sand was enough. It clouded over again anyway.

Aiden got buried in the sand and had to go into the ocean to rise off a bit.

When we got home he had a shower and left so much sand on the shower floor! I think I'll get him to vacuum the car too.

Tim's dad came over in the afternoon to play D&D with Tim and Aiden. It was a bit of a struggle to find anything to offer for afternoon tea, after visitors all long weekend!

Cronulla Sharks won the football final yesterday, I actually watched it (looking up the rules on my phone so I could follow it). Quite violent, lots of tackling - I grew up with my dad watching Aussie Rules which is essentially non-contact (it was invented for cricketers to keep fit in winter before all this international travel) and based on speed and graceful leaping into the air, this rugby league is men with no neck running until they are tackled to the ground and going off the field with dislocated elbows. No protective gear at all, not even helmets, lots of injuries. The captain of the winning team looked like his nose had been broken about 15 times. The Sharks are the local team for this area and it's the first time they have won the Grand Final ever so the beach suburb was covered in even more blue/white/black banners, flags and T-shirts than last week. There was even a whole car painted in the Shark theme with "We won!" Now that is commitment.

...lol just found out the other football, the one my dad followed, also had its Grand Final this weekend! It was so little reported here that I didn't realise. Just shows Sydney doesn't care about that code - even when the Sydney Swans are one of the teams in the final (they lost)!

Daylight Saving

Sunday:

Feeling like a social butterfly at the moment - Friday morning I was thinking about how I have no friends here since we moved but actually I see family so often and they are my friends. Although I would still like to meet some new people.

On Friday night we had some over family for a movie night (Now You See Me 2) which was fun. On Saturday we went over to a cousin's house for "a meal" which was kind of weird because it was for 3:30pm. I wasn't sure what meal that would be, kind of hoping just afternoon tea. But no, was served a big plate full of food which I didn't end up having much of. They have a toddler who they keep to strict nap times, hence the odd meal time.

They have recently acquired a budgie (budgerigar, native Australian small parrot often kept as a pet). It had just flown in the window one day, obviously very tame, it sits on your shoulder and talks. They couldn't find the owner so kept it. Very cute, and the kids are now wanting a pet bird (and dog, and cat, and pony, and guinea pig...)

This morning my father-in-law's partner brought her son and his family over to meet us. It was supposed to be for morning tea, but then there was some confusion as to if anyone knew Daylight Saving started today. We didn't until Jasmine pointed out that her phone was on a different time to her alarm clock! We had a bit of a rush to get dressed and have breakfast just in case, but they came "old time" so we needed have hurried. Anyway, they came over and the three teenage boys (and the dad) got engrossed in our VR and they were here until 2pm. Lots of cakes and cookies kept everyone going. I had very little but still instantly developed a mouth ulcer. I just don't have a tolerance for sugar any more. My body definitely prefers real food. Or at least non-sugary food, I still enjoy chips! I've had way too many of those the past couple of days.

Tomorrow (the official public holiday, Labour Day) we've got family coming over again. Who needs friends?

This afternoon Tim took the kids out to the movies. I decided not to go, I needed a little bit of family-free time! School holidays are a bit different to my usual home-alone routine.

I have been eating very badly this week. Just a bit here and there. Lunch out, ice cream with the kids, snacks at movie night, it all adds up. I weigh myself every couple of days and I know this week (official weigh in day tomorrow) I'll be up a kilo from last week. Not good. I do make plans, every evening I resolve to do better tomorrow. But the next day it's just easier to eat whatever I want. And I've still got another week of school holidays to go! I can't keep using that as an excuse. But I do.