Centarian

Sunday:

Yesterday was my Poppa's 100th birthday. (My mother's father.) A celebratory lunch was held at a country club, all the extended family from near and far plus family friends. I enjoyed catching up with family, but all these older people kept coming up to me and knowing who I was but I had no idea who they were! Darryl? Um, maybe Poppa's cousin's daughter? Or lived next door to Poppa when I was a child? Who knows? I had long conversations with two different old ladies with no idea who they were. They assumed I'd know, and I felt it was rude to ask. At least 'Evan' explained he was a family friend, and the father of a boy I went to primary school with (and a good friend of Tim's old boss, which is a crazy co-incidence as we were in another state at the time!)

I wasn't successful in finding a new winter dress before the event so I wore an old one that was too big on me but looked ok. Actually the shopping process was depressing, for some reason I looked fat and dumpy in everything I tried on, very unlike my other recent shopping experiences, even though I'm the same weight! I refuse to buy anything that makes me look like that.

Group photo of Poppa with all the sons, grandsons, great grandsons and in-laws.

 And with the granddaughters, great granddaughters and in-laws (I have my arm linked with Poppa, the only one wearing glasses).

It was also Tim and my 16th wedding anniversary, so in the evening we went out to dinner. It was a restaurant we hadn't tried before. The food was nice but we were right at the front where it was very noisy and also cold from people going in and out or the door being propped open. They couldn't move us to another table because they were full. I kept my coat on most of the time. We liked the food, but I think we'll save that restaurant for better weather or check when we book that we can be seated at the back.

Today is Mother's Day, I received some lovely presents - like slippers with inserts that you heat in the microwave! - and breakfast and lunch made for me. It was cold and rainy outside so it was a quiet day at home doing some study, watching Librarians Season 4 and trying to avoid the news (Eurovision was 5am our time and there are always spoilers about who won before we get to watch it in the evening) then in the evening - Eurovision Party! Every year we get family and friends to come over and watch with us. None of our favourite groups even made it to the top 10, I think. Oh well, it was fun.

Forgetful

Friday:

Yesterday was my long day, up early for TAFE and home late from driving the kids around to their various activities. I just pop home in between for a couple of very short periods. I was supposed to have an assessment in the afternoon but as I'd missed two weeks sick and hadn't had a chance to practice, myself and a couple of other people are doing it next week instead. It's a role-play thing where the teacher pretends to be a library customer needing help. Easy in some ways but the teacher has a list of very specific things she wants us to do and ask so it does take a bit of rehearsal.

Today Aiden forgot to take his backpack to school, he rode off without it and I didn't notice or see it sitting on the floor by the door all day. Turns out it wouldn't have made much difference - as I forgot to pack his lunch this morning! Very unusually disorganised. We weren't even rushing today. Just got distracted by Aiden finishing off some homework due today... which of course got left at home. The school could have called and I would have taken his bag up, but they just gave him some food from the canteen for lunch which I'll pay for on Monday.

Makes Tim look less bad for letting him go to school with his pants on backwards, as he quickly pointed out to me tonight!

When the kids were home this afternoon I made them come outside with me and we ate our fruit salad sitting my the pool. While Jasmine watched a YouTube video on her iPad. Oh well, I got her outside. Baby steps.

I tested the pool water and I've finally got the pH balance right! But the chlorine levels are still way too low, and the alkalinity too high. How do I reduce the alkalinity without stuffing up the pH? That doesn't make sense. If I add more acid, the pH will change! We have a 'mineral pool' which means we have some nice minerals in that make the water feel soft, and the chlorine is created by a machine thingy somehow instead of us adding it - but I still have to pour in heaps of hydrochloric acid to adjust the pH. Yes, you read that right, hydrochloric acid! H2SO4. Nasty stuff, it burns when you get a drop splash on your hand. I wore gloves once, a drop got on the glove and started sizzling and turned red. Easier to just quickly wash it off my skin than try to pull a sizzling glove off!

Visiting Canberra

Monday:

We lived in Canberra for 15 years before we moved back to Sydney - I hadn't been back for a visit in the year and a half since we moved. Tim had taken Jasmine back to visit friends a couple of times, and he's been back there for work too. This past weekend Jasmine wanted to go to a friend's birthday party there - they've kept in touch this whole time - and Tim wasn't keen but I decided I was ready to return. I'd had no interest before this - when I move on I move on!

It's a three hour drive, we got there just before lunch time Saturday for the very end of the party - the time had been changed a couple of days before, too late for me to change all my plans and bookings even if I'd been willing to drive up Friday night which I wasn't - and left Jasmine with her friend for the weekend. My first item on the agenda was Kingsley's for lunch. It has fried chicken, much like KFC but not as greasy and I loved it the whole time we lived in Canberra. (Also nicest roast chickens, but I was craving the southern fried.) It was still tasty, but turns out 'not as greasy' is still very greasy! I ate most of two pieces and felt a bit nauseated. Oh well, maybe I'll stop craving it now!

There was a stationary store that sells my favourite pens a block away so I popped in there. I can get them in Sydney but not anywhere near where I usually shop. They are a bit more expensive than normal ball-point pens but I love them because they are 0.7mm instead of the usual 1.0mm, usually it's hard to find fine point like that other than felt tip. I've bought quite a few over the past few years but of course they keep mysteriously going missing from my desk. It's like teaspoons and socks. Some little gremlin somewhere likes to eat them. How often do you use up a pen before it disappears? Never?!

I drove past our old house. Apart from some pot plants by the front door I couldn't see any changes. It was the back of the house that really needed work, but I didn't dare creep around and look. It didn't feel like home at all, I got a cold grey vibe from it.

I drove down to the lake and went for a walk, it was always my favourite place for walking. As I had rather expected, there was a very cold wind off the water, chilling my hands, ears and nose. Winter in the mountains. I lasted for 20 minutes before I went and had a cup of tea at the library café.

Here we see the National Library from the vantage of my lake walk...

After my cup of tea I joined the library tour. It was only of the public spaces, unfortunately, but it included some interesting information. I knew that the book storage goes several stories underground, but I didn't know that that part of the building is much wider than the above ground part. It stretches out under the lawns and car parks. The tour guide lady also took us into the national treasures gallery, stuff like Captain Cook's writing desk from his ship and personal log (he "discovered" Australia for England, not counting the Aborigines who'd lived here for tens of thousands of years or the Dutch who visited the other side of Australia before Cook got here).

I did enjoy the tour but I was glad to go at my own pace around the other exhibition there, of Japanese woodcuts (illustrations) from traditional novels. The art was interesting but the best part was the little summaries of the books they were from. Like: a man falls in love with a peasant girl but his family forbids him to marry her because she's a nobody so he becomes a monk. Then he finds out that she is actually a noblewoman, but it's too late. So he commits suicide. So she commits suicide. Sounds a bit like Romeo and Juliet. Lots of moral tales, like the woman who leaves her husband for a rich lover then eventually comes back but her husband and son don't want her back and she learns the error of her ways. The pictures are apparently all full of symbolism; the pattern of her dress means this, surrounded by autumn leaves means that, two children in the background means something else. Fascinating.

Time to move on to my next appointment at the National Museum. I had time for a slice of chocolate raspberry cake - turned out to be the only really delicious food I had all weekend, and it was the only unplanned one! - before going to my Virtual Reality session. It was an underwater dive on the Great Barrier Reef narrated by David Attenborough, taken with a 360 degree camera. We were in swivel chairs so we could easily look around in every direction. Then there was a bit about earliest life in the sea, showing us trilobites and eight-foot long sea scorpions and stuff. Very enjoyable. When I took my feet off the floor it felt like I was floating around.

It was starting to get very cold. I booked into my modest hotel room then walked a few blocks to my favourite Chinese restaurant which we used to go to often and ordered my favourite dish (Shan Tung chicken). In the past it had varied from moderately spicy to very spicy. This time I think they forgot to put in any chilli at all. Bland bland bland. Walked back to my hotel in the freezing evening air and snuggled down for the night. Luckily The Fifth Element was on TV.

In the morning it was still hovering around freezing so I stayed in for a while and had leftover Chinese for breakfast. Bland is ok in the morning. I finished the book I had with me then checked out and went to Questacon, the interactive science and technology museum. Lots of interactive stuff to do. I used to take the kids there a lot, we had an annual pass. It was more a time-killer this time, somewhere inside in the warm.

Finally it was time to go and meet Caroline, my best friend from Canberra. We had lunch at the arboretum, I used to go there a lot to write as it has lovely views. Our lunch table was right by the window.

The view was great, the company was excellent, unfortunately the food (yet again) was a big disappointment. Oh well. I had two lovely hours chatting, I don't really care that I left most of the meat on my plate. Beef cheek that was gelatinous yet tough. Urg. I ate the vegetables and ignored the meat.

I picked up Jasmine from her sleepover then we had the three hour drive home. I was pretty tired by the end. Family was over at our house to play Dungeons and Dragons, just the boys, but also my four year old niece Emma who was bored out of her skull and latched on to me as soon as I walked in the door wanting attention I was too worn out to give. I just wanted everyone to go home so I could have a quick dinner and collapse. But they were there for another hour. I ended the weekend exhausted and grumpy. But otherwise it was a nice couple of days.

After weeks and weeks of 'finished by the end of the week' promises, our tiler turned up and finished putting the paving down in the narrow corner bit. He still has to finish the grouting and then seal it all. 'By the end of the week'. Sigh. It looks nice though.

Haven't heard any more about the heat pump issue or when the interior of the pool will be finished.

Jasmine is home sick today. Down with a cold or flu, she was starting to get sick yesterday. I always let her stay home when she asks because she so rarely asks - she loves school. Aiden would stay home every day if I let him.

Fathers' Day

Sunday:

It's Fathers' Day here in Australia. The kids gave daddy a Darth Vader BBQ apron and a World of Warcraft theme Trivial Pursuit game. Then we had the whole family over for lunch. Well, we planned to, someone forgot to come, someone was sick, you know how it is. I always prepare too much food anyway, with not everyone here it was just ridiculous! I got everyone to take some home and there is still enough for us to reheat for dinner and also for Tim to take for lunch tomorrow.

As usual it was both fun and exhausting. Lots of preparation with cooking and cleaning, then pleasant company for a few hours (actually until 6pm), then I collapse. Tim mastered the BBQ grill while I made the sides and desserts (a couple of other people contributed too). It was a very nice day, but my knees are aching a bit and I'm glad I can sit and watch TV tonight and not do any more work.

A walk by the sea

Friday:

The coast is about 35 minutes from here, close enough that I could go often but far enough that I don't. There were plenty of other things I could/should have been doing today but I saw from the weather forecast that this was our last day of beautiful weather for a while so I decided to go! And it was lovely.

I thought on a Friday in winter it would be easy to get parking, but not today! It was 24C, perfect sunny weather. Every man and his dog was there walking along the esplanade. I had to park a couple of blocks from the coast, a long way down from the main beach. I turned my face away from the centre of town and walked along the seaside path for about 30 minutes, then walked back and even further until I got to the restaurant area where I had lunch. 1 hour 20 minutes walking without a break! And I enjoyed every minute. The path goes right along the sea, sometimes up a cliff, and every kilometre or so there is a park area with a little beach, maybe a pool (with waves crashing into it and sloping sand to walk in gradually), public toilets and benches.

I got back to the main beach and had fish and chips with a view of the ocean, but in the shade, and lingered at my table. Then decided to have dessert. Maybe not my best decision ever, but they had deep fried Mars Bar on the specials board... I'd never tried it and was curious... and my body is not used to so much exercise and wanted to replace calories! They brought it and it looked pretty blah but it was delicious. If you don't know, a Mars Bar is a sort of whipped chocolate fudge confection with a layer of caramel covered in chocolate. They coated this in a thin layer of batter and deep fried it so the middle was all warm and gooey. Surprisingly good. But very sweet of course.

I had planned to do some editing, indeed I'd been carrying my manuscript in my backpack the whole time, but now I'd run out of time as I still had to do the grocery shopping before the kids got home from school. So I walked back to the car - another 35 minutes, making close to 2 hours walking in all, this from someone who could barely walk at all two weeks ago! - and drove back to my own shopping centre. I was very tired at this point and feeling all that sun. I'm not burned, but I forgot my hat so I got a lot more sun than I'm used to. I did the grocery shopping and got extremely thirsty (I'd had juice and water at lunchtime) and was also craving vitamins or something so I bought a lot of fruit and made up a fruit salad as soon as I got home.

By the time I got home from the shops it was starting to cloud over and cool down. I'm glad I got out and enjoyed the sunshine today, indeed all this week, it is going to be much cooler next week.

PS maybe a little bit burnt

Distractions

Thursday:

Did I mention that working from home has its distractions? Firstly, the Olympics. I was watching a close beach volleyball game while eating breakfast today, then tried to walk away from the television, then the bastards put on synchronised diving! Second is the internet, I can scroll through cute pictures of kittens all day without a boss looking over my shoulder. And thirdly my favourite computer game (actually the only one I play), World of Warcraft, is bringing out a new expansion in a few weeks and they have released some new content in the lead up to it so obviously I need to explore that... And of course lastly I am an avid reader and get lost in whatever I am reading... it's no wonder the house is a mess and I never get any writing done. This is why I sometimes try getting out of the house to write.

Friday:

Today I had lunch with my sister-in-law near her work, which was lovely. I've been to that café twice before, the food is nice but the servings are enormous! As usual, I ate less than half my meal. I did enjoy it though, and had a good chat with Ping. I walked around the big shopping centre and finally got my hands on the new Harry Potter book, then did the grocery shopping.

For and against

Monday:

Hmm, looks like I didn't blog on the weekend. I guess I was a bit tired. On Saturday Tim took Jasmine back to Canberra so she could have a sleepover with some of her old friends. It's a 3.5 hour drive from here, so there and back takes a big chunk of the weekend. Jasmine had a great time, Tim caught up with some friends but had a horrible night's sleep on a thin mattress on someone's floor.

I was here with just Aiden. I still wasn't feeling so well, so in the afternoon we watched the first SpongeBob movie (and I had a bit of a nap in front of the TV) and in the evening we watched the second SpongeBob movie! I don't think the movies live up to the show, it's better in a short format. I never sleep well when Tim is away so I had a restless night.

On Sunday Tim and Jas got back at lunchtime, just in time for family to come over for our regular meal together. Since Ping is still in the queasy early pregnancy stages I am hosting every week. By the time everyone else left I was pretty wiped out from cleaning and cooking and socialising. I think Tim was even tireder! I eventually had a lovely soak in the bath which brought on a big epiphany about my novel and how to tie some things together. A bath is almost as good as walking to help the ideas come.

Today I went to the doctor to get my foot done again, then shopping, then home for the finale of Game of Thrones. Epic! This was a great season.

My weight this morning was 82.1 kg, up a bit.

I know I need to get on with getting healthy, I've let it slide a bit lately. Or rather, I keep starting but only lasting half a day.

Reasons to start eating healthy right now:
I need to lose weight to help my health issues.
I want to lose weight to look better.
My body needs more real nutrition when my health is compromised, not less.

Reasons to not start eating healthy right now:
I still have yummy frankenfood in the house that I don't want to throw away.
It's my birthday in  less than a week with some celebrations planned so, you know, I might as well wait and start next Monday.
The kids go on holidays for two weeks straight after my birthday and that makes it tricky, maybe I should wait until they go back to school.
I finally see the gyno in four weeks, it's really hard to focus on healthy food when I've got all these issues, I could wait until after that appointment... or until I'm actually better... I may need minor (fibroid removal) or major (hysterectomy) surgery so I'd need to recover from that...

I'm sick of trying and failing yet again. Sometimes I feel very ready to go on a diet make a lifestyle change but right now I'm clinging to my comfort foods. I'm not depressed, but I'm tired and not feeling well. Yet if I wait for the perfect time it will never happen. If I wait until I feel healthy and have no pains anywhere before I start exercising - how likely is that? No obese person would ever start!

At the doctor's today someone was chatting to the receptionist about how it was the coldest day for years, or ever, or something. I had to giggle internally. Yes it's cold, you need a jumper, and it's also raining which is chilly if you get caught in it, but compared to Canberra (or many many other places in the world) this is positively balmy! Not that I would like to stand out in the rain waiting for the bus like Jas had to do after school today. But it's perfect hot bath weather.

Movies

Sunday:

Yesterday we had lunch with family before going to see the movie "Warcraft". We took the kids even though it was rated M, even Harry Potter movies are rated M. We all play the computer game that it was based on, World of Warcraft. It was quite a good movie, not stellar. Everyone seems to agree that it would be a bit confusing if you don't play the game. I ate m&ms in the movies but did not partake of the ice cream everyone else had afterwards. Ice cream is ok, not my passion, not something I want to spend calories on in winter.

I went to bed really early, exhausted. Had two sessions of night sweats paired with bad dreams. Got up exhausted this morning. Pelvic pain, sore foot, no sleep, headache, feeling sorry for myself today. Cranky with my fitbit that tells me yay you got 10 hours 20 mins sleep! Really, fitbit? I may have been lying quietly in bed that long, doesn't mean I got a restful night!

On to nicer topics, today was a birthday lunch at a café, the booking was for 1:30pm so by the time everyone gets there (through pouring rain), reconnects with other guests, orders, it was 2:30 by the time we got any food. Very late lunch for me! But it was nice food, and good company. We stood around chatting for a while afterwards.

When we got home we finished off watching the last Hobbit movie. Next weekend we'll start the Lord of the Rings saga.

Christmas shopping

Wednesday:

I wish I was wearing my Fitbit today, I would love to know how many steps I took! I was Christmas shopping for nearly five hours, walking around a huge shopping centre. My feet and legs were so sore and tired by the end. My feet invented new swear words! I bought a few things, not as many as I'd hoped, but also a couple of new pretty shirts for myself. I like to have something new to wear on Christmas Day and maybe Boxing Day too. I don't like shopping for clothes but it is my personal tradition and it makes me find something to fit the shape I am, not wait until that magical day in the future when I'm thin. I managed to find a couple I'm reasonably happy with.

I have mostly finished buying presents for the children, but have nothing yet for Tim! And let me tell you, that is just as important! I heard on the news tonight that we are officially into "last minute Christmas shopping". Arg!

I didn't do so well with food, buying greasy food-court Chinese. It was interesting to see that the longest queues for food were at the KFC! I was thinking to myself, with all this choice why would you go for KFC? Then I had my Chinese and found out why. Not very nice. None of the food seemed healthy or appealing, but later as I made my way around the huge complex I found another area with both fresh food (butchers, greengrocers etc) and more interesting lunch options. I'll have to make sure I'm at that end at lunchtime next time I go there. I didn't end up having lunch with my sister-in-law, at lunchtime I wasn't near her and was already too tired to take all the extra steps. But I missed out on a better lunch because I'm sure she knows the complex well.

My legs are seriously aching, I think I'll need to soak in a bath before bed.

It was the kids' last day of school before six weeks holiday, and Tim is also taking a couple of weeks off from tomorrow. Holidays! We aren't going anywhere, but preparing for Christmas and finishing (hopefully) the unpacking and just relaxing in our new house. I'm sure we can fit in a trip or two to the beach. Tim and the kids all seem really tired and run down, they need a nice break.

Lunch at a vineyard

Saturday:

No beeps in the night, yay! Good sleep.

It was a friend's birthday lunch today, at a restaurant attached to a vineyard. I hadn't really been looking forward to it, there would be a lot of people I didn't know and I'm a bit shy, and I knew it was a set menu so I was really worried I wouldn't like the food (I'm afraid I gave little to no thought about whether it would fit with my diet, it was my cheat/reward/treat/indulgence meal for the week - I think I'll go with indulgence - which would be fine if I hadn't been off-plan most of the week due to illness). Anyway, it turned out great. The setting was lovely, outdoors next to big vegetable garden that the staff actually came out and gathered produce from, on the outskirts of a country town. It was a bit hot but at least we were in shade. I knew quite a few people and we were seated near friends, plus a couple of new people who were nice and chatty. And the food was really lovely.

The service was, shall we say, relaxed, so that we received our dessert at 3pm. The kids were a bit bored by then but overall it was a very nice gathering.

I did the grocery shopping in the afternoon and we had a late dinner. No afternoon snack needed today!

Report card:
Diet: Poor, I guess. Too many calories, including some wine. But nothing I feel bad about.
Exercise: Poor. But I promise that this is the last day without exercise for a while.
Water: Great. One glass to go before bedtime.
Sleep: Good. A solid night.
Mental health: Great. I did a meditation this morning and had a nice long lunch with friends. And I didn't give up on the whole day due to the lunch, I made sure the rest of the day was healthy.

Day 7 - food porn

Wednesday:

I went out for a walk this morning and tried to be part of the day. Blue sky; cool wind around my bare neck; bark-brown female Willy-wag-tail, so much drabber than the male bird that she's hard to see; the gnarled white trunk of an enormous gum tree. I found walking much easier than other times recently, it's nice to be over the flu and I think maybe I'm not quite as unfit as I thought. Unfit, but no so unfit that a half hour walk kills me.

That means I did half an hour of exercise three times this week. A large part of my brain is berating me for not doing a lot more, but I refuse to listen to anything other than the cheering section. Yay, three times this week! Great work!

Then I came home and made lunch. I created this recipe made out of things I like but I wasn't sure about it because it only had a splash of light cream instead of being smothered in the full-fat version. But it ended up delicious. Strips of chicken breast and sliced mushrooms stir fried with garlic and pepper, then a tablespoon of light cream and a little chicken stock at the end, on a bed of grilled asparagus.

All for around 250 calories!

Might as well give you a picture of my dinner as well:

Lovely vibrant colours. The steak was delicious. It was all good. Hunger makes a great seasoning. I find I'm a bit hungrier than usual at mealtimes, which I think is a good thing. I should be hungry just before I eat!

Evening was harder. I wanted it to be snack time, mindless eating time. But it wasn't. I waited, then had my allotted supper of yoghurt.

And day seven successfully completed!

Early feels so early

Wednesday:

I started off the day really well, getting up in time to do my walk even though I didn't want to. I also had a super-healthy lunch: a big salad with a few slices of lean lamb and a drizzle of balsamic dressing. But the rest of my day was very sedentary, I spent the whole day working hard getting ready for Uni next week. Going over my unit outlines, reading things I needed to read before my first tutorials, watching an online video. I have to be up to speed in Mathematics to do my Chemistry subject. I was very good at Maths at school - but that was 25 years ago! 1988. My goodness. I did an online diagnostic test, which was essentially "what do you remember from high school 25 years ago?" And the answer turned out to be "about half of it". Now I have six weeks to go through a series of online Maths tutorials and then get 80% in the real test. Phew.

Total steps today just over 7000. Most of that was my walk this morning then to and from the school twice.

At dinner time I went to cook the yummy steaks I had bought only a few days ago. Monday - two days ago! And they were ... euw. Turning green. Had to throw them away. I can't find the receipt either, must be buried under yuckness in the bin. I kept the labels from the trays and I'll see what the supermarket says - four T-bone steaks is a lot of meat and a lot of money! The kids needed something before their karate class so I gave them the other half of the lamb fillet (a tiny bit each) and salad. Then later ordered pizza for me and Tim. Which the kids ate a lot of. I was moderate - two slices of pizza and two pieces of garlic bread. But it still took my daily calorie total a little over my limit. And it must have sent my blood glucose sky high - I just tested it more than three hours later and it's still over 8.4 mmol/L.

Every day I will keep trying to do better.

Birthday girl

Thursday:

As usual, the menu and daily activities were entirely chosen by the birthday person. I'll say up-front that I do not put responsibility for what I eat on my daughter - totally my choice to indulge today!

We started with presents in the big bed, then I made French toast with raspberries. Big doses of carbohydrate seem to affect me more and more these days, and two slices of sourdough bread (which doesn't sound that much to me, that's just the same as a sandwich) soaked in egg, cream and sugar etc left me feeling overfull, bloated and sleepy for hours. I am not planning to completely ban any food as that seems to put me into a panicky fear-of-deprivation mode, but I feel much better if I eat smaller amounts of wheat-based products and sugar. So breakfast was a (daughter's) birthday indulgence. Even so, I don't really want an indulgence that makes me feel like that! Still, I don't regret it - I enjoyed eating it and I am done with regrets over insignificant little choices like that.

The rest of the morning was filled with utilizing the various presents. We listened to the soundtrack from "Frozen", the kids watched "The Croods" and "Despicable Me 2" (yes, two movies in one morning!) and played with the various little girly toys like Littlest Pet Shop miniature animals that she is collecting. She had 21 before today and I must have got her another five or six.

We've tried not to be gender-biased in the treatment of our kids, presents we give them or activities we suggest for them, but it has just turned out that Jasmine is a very girly girl (I wasn't) and Aiden is a boyish boy. They were just born that way.

Then into the city (such as it is, Canberra has a population of around 350,000 so the "city" is just the biggest collection of shops) to pick up Tim from work and have lunch at our favourite Chinese restaurant. The Shan Tung chicken can vary a lot in amount of chilli, today it was super hot. But very tasty.

After dropping Tim back at work we went to uni so I could return my borrowed Biology textbook. I had read the first four chapters, I haven't done any Science for 25 years and I can see it is going to be very challenging. A lot to learn. Maybe it's a good thing I will only be able to fit in three subjects this term instead of four, don't want to overtax the aging brain. While we were there I bought my Chemistry and Nutrition textbooks and I've started reading the Nutrition one. Fascinating stuff already. I can see I am really going to enjoy the core of this course. I'll keep you posted on things I learn.

It was really hot again outside and just walking back to the car with two very heavy textbooks was tiring. Back home to relax for the afternoon, with Jasmine creating some glow in the dark stickers, then her favourite lasagne for dinner and ice cream for dessert. And then watering the garden with daddy which seemed to get more water on them than the plants.

I think my little girl had a good day.

I had some great news, my mammogram came back clear. I hadn't really been worrying about it, but it's good to know.

Farewell to the zombies, I'll miss you

Thursday:

Job stuff is going well, although I woke at 4am worrying about various things and took a couple of hours to switch off the brain and get back to sleep.

The first issue was my current client, I thought the work was nearly done then yesterday she sent me this 'new' version of her manuscript with some more additions scattered through it -- all garbled and full of spelling and continuity errors. I really didn't want to have to edit the whole thing again! But she called me today to apologise, she had just had surgery and was still dopey after general anaesthetic when she wrote and sent that (she said she also sent some really weird emails to her sister). So I only ended up wasting an hour on that and I was very happy that it was resolved.

I had my interview for the government contract today. I couldn't get Skype working properly; I could see them but they couldn't see me. We went ahead with it anyway and we're progressing to the next stage so it looks like it will probably happen.

This is kind of a big deal to me in the sense that I have been working from home for years now. My time is completely my own to arrange, but on the other hand I don't see other adults very much which can be lonely. So when someone I respect recommended me for this job (she would be my boss) I decided to go for it. I would be working longer hours than I am used to (still part time school hours) because there would be no excuse to go and stack the dishwasher or cook an elaborate lunch or ... exercise during the day.

We are heading into winter so the only time I would want to run would be during the day. Early morning (which I hate anyway) or after my husband gets home from work (also scared of the dark) would be too cold. I was walking the kids to school this morning, after four days off running, noticing I had no pain in my shins or feet or anywhere else and decided to give up running. I've been resisting being a quitter, but I think my commendable determination had turned into stupid pigheadedness. It was hurting every time (and not in a good way), I didn't like it, the residual pain meant I wasn't exercising at all on in-between days, I was showing hardly any improvement, and now I'd have to do it in sub-freezing temperatures.

So I think it will be back to dancing, which I actually enjoy. And I'll walk to work every day too (if they hire me) which will be an hour total each day. I feel a little sad about 'giving up' but I think it is the right decision. I will miss those zombies. Maybe I'll try again when I am lighter, so there is less weight on my joints.

If I do start this job in a bit over a week, I'm not sure what to take for lunch. Salads + protein I guess. It can be tricky when you are used to relying on carbs, or else being able to spend time preparing and cooking. Today I made a kind of quinoa 'fried rice' (no actual rice, just quinoa, chicken and finely chopped vegetables, stir fried in olive oil and with a good squeeze of lemon juice to finish). I suppose I could pre-cook stuff like that and warm it in the microwave there. Every workplace has a microwave these days, right? They better have tea-making facilities or I'm not going.

Elegant birthday lunch

Friday:

Yesterday was Tim's birthday. I hope he had a good day. We started with presents in bed, then French toast with raspberries for breakfast (my blood glucose was a bit high after). He went to work for half a day then I picked him up and we went to a swish restaurant; the kind that has beautifully plated food that also tastes delicious. We had three courses but each one was quite small so the total amount of food was just right for a decadent but not gluttonous lunch. Then back just in time to pick up the kids from school. Aiden begged off gymnastics because he was so excited about the computer game he had given daddy for his birthday, so that was how the boys spent the rest of the afternoon.

Unfortunately that cake I bought yesterday wasn't very nice, we had some for afternoon tea but it was rather disappointing. Oh well, you can't win them all and the rest of the day went very well. I made the requested veal schnitzel and potato bake for dinner, and everyone chose vanilla icecream instead of more cake for dessert (I didn't have anything). A rather carb-laden day.

And I have paid for it today with intense carb cravings, which I have totally given in to. I'm also very tired and lurgy. It's going to take a big effort to put the brakes back on.

I've spent the day finishing an editing job, got that done and sent off.

Totally under/un-prepared for the stair climb on Sunday! I've used work and rain as excuses not to do some stair-climbing the past couple of days. I've done a bit of dancing, but no sprint work which is what I really need.

Out to lunch

Sunday:

Friday was the last day of school, so the last chance for Tim & I to go out to lunch without the kids. We'd had lunch while out Christmas shopping a couple of times during the week, but wanted to go somewhere special so we went to one of our favourite places; Rock Salt. I don't know whether it keeps changing hands or they are just innovative, but everytime we go (maybe a couple of times a year) both the decor and the menu are completely different. It has got a bit more casual over the years, but still good.

Anyway, we had some garlic bread and both ordered the steak. And they were huge! We each only ate about half, we should have shared. It was nice (not nicer than I make at home, but I didn't have to cook it or wash up) but not worth how I felt afterwards, even after only eating half. I was sleepy and bloated for the rest of the afternoon. I feel a bit silly ordering it now, anyway, it is something I can cook quickly and easily myself but it was probably the most expensive thing on the menu. It's what I felt like eating at the time, but now I wonder why I didn't have something a bit more elaborate that I don't know how to make. Still, it was a pleasant lunch out with my husband.

I've spent most of the weekend cooking in preparation for people arriving tomorrow. One of the desserts -- the chocolate volcanoes -- took 3 blocks of chocolate, 2 dozen eggs, and nearly a kilogram of butter. I've also been grocery shopping and house-cleaning.

It's been very hot so I've been feeling pretty tired all day. We're expecting a cool change in time for Christmas Day, though, for which I am very grateful considering I'll have the oven on all day.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas. Two more sleeps!