Competition

Friday:

We just got back from a week in Queensland, where Jasmine participated in a National Gymnastics competition. Her part, Acrobatic Gymnastics, was held over four days with all the different levels and age groups. It was a real challenge for her trio, they had been competing at level 3A (and came 4th in the state) but the National competition started at level 4 so they had less than a month to learn some more difficult skills and change their routines. They’ve been working really hard. Unfortunately in their first routine they fell out of the tower skill after less than a second (you have to hold it for 3 seconds) and lost a lot of points. Abbey, the little ‘top’ of the trio was very upset. But they came back strong in their second routine and I was very proud of them.

I don't have the professional photos yet, this is a blurry still from the video I took.

 And a couple of shots of our club's highest level athletes.

The big excitement was that Jasmine’s club, Acrogym, came first overall! We are the Australian National champions!

We didn’t get much time off from watching and supporting the team, but we did manage a little time at the beach, and one morning at SeaWorld. And we had a lovely view from our hotel.

I only gained 0.5 kg which I was very happy about considering we ate out every meal, plus some snacks. We did do a lot of walking. But also a lot of sitting!

I had a funny time at the doctor's last week. I'd only seen her once before, a month before when she gave me a script for Duromine (phentermine). At that appointment she didn't weigh me, I told her I'd weighed 77kg that morning and she accepted that figure.

At this second appointment I told her that I had lost 3kg in the first two weeks, nothing in the second two weeks. She put me on her scale, which she couldn't get to work for a while - probably flat batteries. When I finally stepped on, it showed 68.7 kg, a huge loss. I tried a couple of times to insist it couldn’t be right, I hadn’t lost that much, I had weighed myself at home on my usual scale. But she didn’t seem to listen and just kept praising the loss and I gave up, I’m not very assertive. But it means she has that on my record now and the next weigh-in is going to be very disappointing!

Butterfly mug

Wednesday:

Not much to write about today. I had the day off and spent part of it shopping for summer clothes for the kids (most of which I'll probably have to take back if they don't fit!) as we are visiting Queensland soon and it is much hotter there, and they both seem to have grown out of all their clothes. I might not have time to shop with them before we go. Early spring weather in Sydney wavers between cool and warm.

For myself bought a new mug for work. It has a weird-looking handle, but is comfortable to hold.

I've been doing some more gardening. So much to do! And have been spending a lot of time working on my novel. Still not actually writing the text yet though! I keep having thoughts about what religion is like there, the animals and plants, how you domesticate a cave dragon, what motivates my characters etc. I want to get all the backstory worked out. I struggle with making up good fantasy names, but I can't write properly until I do. I can't get inspired while calling someone X or 'father' or 'girl'. I'm well advanced on that side now and feeling pretty good about it.

I see my doctor tomorrow after a month on Duromine (phentermine). I lost 3kg in the first two weeks but then nothing since, in fact I've struggled to not regain. So I'm not sure what she'll say. I'm sleeping better and feeling better, so I'd like to stay on it for a while longer.

Spring

Monday:

Yay for Spring! First day of Spring yesterday and it was a lovely warm sunny day. It was also Father's Day, so the family (Tim's side) met in the park for a picnic ... along with about a million other families! It was quite lovely to get out.

Then today, as I had the day off, I spent a couple of hours working in the garden, and I have the blisters on my hands to prove it!

My boss called about the roster this week, I'll be working in the other library (not where I was last week), and she asked if I'd like her to take my milk over since she was going there. Only a couple of us have milk in our tea/coffee so there wouldn't necessarily be any there. I was just going to buy more but I'm getting rather paranoid. Are they all watching me to make sure I don't waste milk? I'm sure they are all just trying to be nice to the new girl! Maybe I should just offer to be a designated person to keep both offices supplied with milk...

I'm trying to get started writing my new novel. I wrote one a couple of years ago but I feel I can do a lot better the second time. I've been thinking about the plot on and off for a year or so, and the past few weeks I've been taking it more seriously and working out names and backstories etc. Time to write the actual words! It is fantasy fiction (again).