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.

Mother's Day

Monday:

I had a lovely Mother's Day yesterday, although of course I missed my own mum. The kids made breakfast then I did the grocery shopping (that bit wasn't particularly fun, but I'd still rather do it myself), take-away for lunch and played some computer games.

My afternoon probably won't sound fun either but it was satisfying. I'd been struggling with this week's lesson in my most difficult class, and was getting more than half the exercises wrong even when I thought I 'had it' - very frustrating. So I spent a couple of hours over the weekend really getting it into my head and I finally did work it out. It wasn't fun to do but a big relief when I got a good mark in the online quiz.

Then we had family over for dinner, I got to stretch my new oven to its limits and it performed well, and a Eurovision Song Contest party in the evening with a few extra people joining us. I really enjoyed it, in fact it was a very good day overall.

My website project is live - its a website for a pretend library, you can find it at www.webdesign.sit.edu.au/stud588. There's only two pages so not all the links go anywhere. We need people to have a look so we can get some Google Analytics data for class, so I'd love you to check it out! You don't have to do anything to give feedback, the Analytics tell us how many people visited, how long they stayed on each page etc. If you want to compare to other people's you could try putting in a different number at the end (like 587 etc), I'm not sure which numbers are valid but I was one of the last on the list so the other numbers might be higher than mine if they are in sequence. (I have looked at other students' but by clicking on a link so I didn't pay attention to the number).

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day and a great weekend.

Oven

Thursday:

It's been a day of ups and downs.

Firstly the tilers were here all day and got a good portion of the tiling done and it looks great.

Actually it looks darker and dirtier in the pictures than in reality, maybe because I took the photo when the day's light was failing. The tiles are actually a very pale blonde.

Then the oven was delivered. Not great news about whether it would fit in the space, the previous (old) wall oven was an odd size that we couldn't find an exact replacement for. This one is close, but a little too tall and too narrow. So we might need a carpenter to do a little cabinetry, at present there is a gap down the sides and the doors of the cupboard above had to be taken off. But I was very excited about having an oven again. Until he turned it on and there was a loud pop and the element blew or something. They have another one in the warehouse and at first said they will deliver that tomorrow. So I did the grocery shopping and took a chance on hoping I would have an oven from tomorrow! Bought ingredients for roast chicken and BBQ pork ribs. ... and then they called in the evening to say they couldn't deliver until next week. Which, with my schedule, means next Thursday. I can use the top part of this one, I wasn't going to if it was just one day but I will since otherwise I won't have an oven at all for another week.

Finally in up/down news, I got the final cheque from mum's solicitor, the last payment from her  estate that he had been hanging on to until he got the tax returns done. It's been more than two years and I had to get the executor to give the solicitor a nudge. Anyway, it came in the mail today so I was feeling that finally I didn't have to deal with that side of her death any more, everything was finalised. And also we need the money for the pool, which is like a cash-sucking vampire. But when I was at the shops today I was surrounded by Mother's Day cards and flowers and present ideas - it's only a week away. And I realised that mum's death will never be "finalised". Well, I'm still glad the money side is done with.

Forty one: Mother's Day

Sunday:

I'm feeling much better today. Quiet day at home. Presents then the kids made me breakfast (with daddy supervision), and Tim went out and bought food for the day since we weren't originally expecting to be in. Mostly reading and family computer games today. And too much eating. Luckily tomorrow is Monday and another fresh week.

Eight week diet plan:
Fortnight One - stick to plan, maybe a little treat, lose lots of weight.
Fortnight Two - a few more treats but mostly to plan, still lose some weight.
Fortnight Three - as many days off plan as on, weight swings wildly.
Fortnight Four - did you say you were on a diet? regain most of the weight.

I'm about to start the final fortnight of this eight week plan. My goal is to stray from my usual pattern outlined above! Surely I can stick to it for two final weeks. Then reassess.

My own mother died January last year, so this is my second Mother's Day without her. My father died almost exactly a year ago. I have thought of them often today.

Mothers' Day

Sunday:

Happy Mothers' Day to all mothers out there!

It was my first Mothers' Day since my mother's death, and I'm also worried about my dad, so that was a bit sad. But mostly I had a lovely day. Tim cooked breakfast and dinner (and dessert) and we went out to lunch. I got presents and cuddles from my lovely children.

We also went out to see some live modern dance at the theatre, it was actually a birthday present I bought for my husband. Unfortunately it wasn't very good. Instead of being in the big theatre, we were directed to a small dingy room around the side. The choreographer introduced every piece, and it was obviously her trying to relive her glory days when her art was edgy and controversial - literally 50 years ago. It was all to 60s music that only the oldest people in the audience recognised, or else to weird spoken word "music" or erratic drumbeats etc. She told us proudly that some of the costumes were the originals from the first production - you could tell, they were a bit threadbare and didn't fit properly.

Maybe it wasn't quite as bad as all that. Not quite. There were a few decent moments. Anyway, we got our enjoyment after the show making fun of it after we were safely away and out of earshot of the performers.

It was a freezing cold day with a bit of icy rain so it was nice to get home to have dinner and relax in front of the TV.

I hope everyone, mothers or not, had a lovely day.

My mum is shrinking

Sunday:

We spent the weekend in Sydney, Saturday with my husband's relatives (now mine too, of course!) and Sunday with mine. We took my mum out to lunch because it was her birthday today, and Mother's Day last week.

Nearly the first thing I said to her, perhaps a little tactlessly, was something like "you are shorter!" It's true I was wearing my hiking boots with lots of tread on the soles and she was only wearing slippers, but nevertheless she has always been a few inches taller than me and now she was shorter. She agreed that she felt she was shrinking a bit, especially with her limp, and she also said her own father (who just turned 96 and is going strong, still living in his own house and having family over for dinner regularly) has shrunk down to her height over the past 20 years. I can't afford to shrink when I get to my 70s, I have to stand on a chair to get to my own high cupboards as it is!

Mum was doing well. She has a long-awaited follow-up appointment with her oncologist this week and she's hoping for some answers and a prognosis now they've had time to see how the treatment is working.

I think I did reasonably well negotiating all the bad food this weekend. Not brilliantly, but I resisted quite a bit of junk that I could have easily scoffed down. Like today at the restaurant; I should have had no dessert, I could have eaten a whole dessert, but what I actually did was share a dessert with my mum. A compromise.

I also took my niece out for a short walk with the pram. Apart from that, lots of sitting in the car or in people's lounge rooms.

I am starting carb-loading in the morning for my blood test on Thursday, and I am determined to eat all those extra carbs while not overdoing the total calories.

Mother's Day

Sunday:

I got some lovely presents and cuddles in bed, then breakfast cooked by my husband (not in bed). It was kind of a struggle to appreciate it all because I was feeling pretty sick and really just wanted to be sleeping, but I enjoyed as much as I could then went back to bed for the rest of the morning. And another nap after lunch. In a lot of ways I am feeling much better today, I don't ache nearly so much. But I have a runny nose and a cough and can hardly keep my eyes open. But hopefully this new phase means I am on the mend.

I'm a bit cranky with Facebook today. The Eurovision song contest is on tonight, we watched the two semi-finals and I was really looking forward to seeing the final. But we see it more than a day behind the actual event which is on the other side of the world (Copenhagen this year, I think), and Facebook has a "trending news" stream at the side that gave away who won! So annoying! I was being careful not to watch the news on TV today, just in case, I didn't know stupid Facebook would give it away.

Eurovision is awesome. Every country in Europe (or most of them) put in an entry, an original song. And it is so so random. My favourite last year was a male Romanian opera singer, dressed basically like a vampire, who did most of the song in falsetto. There were little Russian grandmothers doing a song a couple of years ago, they came second. There are some atrocious performances and some really good ones, you never know what you're gonna get. People on trampolines, people whistling while playing violin and drums... This year the stand out for me from the semis was the bearded lady from Austria. She was clearly born a man, with a male voice and a beard, but in all other ways looked very female - the hair, the make up, the slinky dress. It was quite confusing to watch. But a great singer and song, a powerful performance, as well as being voyeuristically entertaining.

We were supposed to have a party tonight with people coming over to watch but of course I am too sick so we cancelled. And now I know who is going to win. Where is the dramatic tension?

NB I talked to my mum on the phone but I'll see her next weekend for her birthday.

Mother's Day, anniversary, and zooventure

Sunday:

Today was both Mother's Day and my 11th wedding anniversary. We started with presents, then my lovely husband made bacon and hash browns -- a huge breakfast for me but delicious. I usually have a very light breakfast and then morning tea, today I certainly wasn't hungry until lunch time. Part of the morning was spent dancing along to my new Kinect game, Dance Central 2. So I have a whole new set of songs to conquer! Excellent.

After a light lunch of salad and one chocolate each from the box the kids gave me, we went to the zoo. I'd been given a ZooVenture voucher for Christmas but hadn't found the time to use it until now. I was part of a group of about seven people who were taken on a guided tour of the zoo. We got to feed a tiger, a white lion and a cougar (with pieces of meat held through the bars on long-handled tongs), a brown bear (with an avocado and pawpaw mush slimed onto my hand), a giraffe and an emu (a piece of carrot each), pat a dingo, hold a python etc. The otters were the funniest, in that I was given some chunks of raw meat and then the keeper asked my kids if they wanted to feed the otters too. They and my husband had been trailing along behind the group taking photos but were not paid members of the tour. The kids said yes so the keeper gave them a tiny dead baby mouse each! They didn't seem to mind, I think some kids would have freaked out.

After we thoroughly washed our hands, we went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant. I had accidentally booked the wrong restaurant; it was a few doors down from the one we have been too before and I couldn't remember the name. I didn't realise until we got there. But it was great food. All fresh and healthy too, we didn't have anything deep fried and I only had a tiny scoop of rice. Overall, at this point I was probably within my calories for the day (hard to be sure with restaurant food). But we came home and had chocolate crème brulee for dessert. I had about 2/3 of mine, a whole one had something like 650 calories. A delicious indulgence. Lovely day.

Luckily it was a pretty active day with dance and walking around the zoo for two hours. Still feeling a bit overstuffed though.

Snout stuck in the chocolate

Monday:

Yesterday afternoon Tim took the kids out for a scooter while I did some editing work; Jasmine came off her scooter again and grazed up the other knee pretty badly, putting a hole in her new jeans, and Tim was feeling a bit dizzy and sick when he got back. He seemed to recover ok but I woke up about 4.30 this morning all sweaty and with slight stomach pain. I got back to sleep eventually. Later walking the kids to school left me feeling yuck again and in a mucky sweat which was unpleasant. Luckily I felt much better throughout the day, but I put off my zombie run until tomorrow.

Still haven't managed to get back on the healthy food wagon. I tried hard today but got my snout stuck in the chocolate bar. Then tonight we got home really late after the usual Monday run of activities, Jas was delayed by being measured for her costume for the dance concert coming up and we didn't get home until 7.00 with dinner not even started, so I got fried chicken on the way. Very bad choice. Super greasy.

Luckily tomorrow is always another day, another set of decisions to make.

There is another 5K in 2 weeks, a Mother's Day run, I just saw the ad on TV today. I think I'll do it. It gets expensive but it's very motivating to have a goal and be with other runners. And the money goes to breast cancer research. I need to beat 49:38! Two more weeks training should help a lot. Mother's Day (12 May this year) is also our wedding anniversary -- 11 years. What better way to celebrate my lovely marriage than by making myself healthier so that it lasts longer?

Thirteen meals

Wednesday:

We just spent four days away. I had a lovely time but my eating definitely wasn't on plan.

The drive to Sydney takes a bit over three hours, not including stops, and we went Friday afternoon/evening; stopping at McDonald's on the way. The next morning we had bacon and eggs at my mum's. Well, sort of. My mum is a terrible cook, probably mainly because she has sinus problems and no sense of smell. She also always underestimates how much people will eat. The scrambled eggs were burnt well beyond the point that even my polite husband could stomach, so we had a morsel of bacon each and some toast. The only available topping for the toast was vegemite.

Anyway; that behind us, Tim & I left the kids with mum and set off for our day out. It was our ten year wedding anniversary and we had a full day planned. After Tim was forced to choose between wife number 1 (me) and Karen (the GPS), we ended up taking a bit of a detour over Sydney Harbour Bridge but eventually made it to our hotel. We left the car there and went to Darling Harbour, a touristy area with the acquarium and Chinese Gardens and lots of shops and restaurants. We decided to visit the Madame Toussaude's waxworks (I didn't even know we had one in Australia) which turned out to be great. The models were much more realistic than I expected and most of them looked startlingly like the people they were copied from. We decided there were at least two teams of artists as some -- while looking realistically human -- didn't look much like the people they were supposed to be. I sat on the couch with Oprah and cuddled Johnny Depp and wore a crown next to Queen Elizabeth. Then we went to a lovely waterside restaurant to have lunch. The garlic bread was amongst the best I have ever had, then I had the duck and wild mushroom gnocchi which was delicious but too filling to eat more than half, and a glass of the nicest wine I have had for ages. For dessert we wandered along to the Lindt chocolate shop where we had a macaroon each and bought some Lindor balls for later, flavours you don't see in the supermarket. I had seen macaroons on MasterChef but never tried one, we agreed they were ok but nothing amazing. Sort of gooey cookies.

It was time for the matinee so we went to the Sydney Opera House -- those iconic sails on the harbour -- for a performance of Macbeth. It wouldn't have been our first choice for an anniversary outing, a big production muscial or a dance show would have been more fun, but we both like Shakespeare and it turned out to be very good. We had some of the Lindor balls at interval then a cup of tea afterwards before heading back to the hotel.

Present time! I gave Tim ballroom dancing lessons every Sunday afternoon. He often says he wants to do something together and we have enjoyed dancing in the past but kids interrupted all that sort of thing. The kids are old enough now to sit at the side with their Nintendo DSs. He gave me an iPhone! Yay! It was really difficult not to take it down to dinner.

The receptionist talked me into dining at the hotel and gave us a 20% off voucher, although Tim remained dubious. It is the first time I have been given an iPad by the waiter and told to order my own meal! Tim's reservations turned out to be well deserved, they served us the wrong meal (and it wasn't us, we ordered correctly, the waiter checked) and then Tim had to chase down the side salad we had ordered. We insisted on getting the correct meal so we had another long wait, they gave us a free glass of wine each but it wasn't very nice. All this meant that we had little time to freshen up before our next event, which was the Aurealis Awards.

I was one of the judges for the Fantasy Novel category. The dress varied from formal to fairly casual (I dressed up) and at my suggestion Tim wore his pirate costume. He was the only person in costume so got quite a lot of attention which was great. There was even some kind of documentory about speculative fiction in Australia being filmed so he could appear in the background of that! We skipped the after-show party and went back to our room.

Sunday was Mothers' Day. We had the hotel buffet breakfast which was really lovely. The day before I had only eaten a portion of my meals, I think my stomach was used to a bit less food, but I was able to eat quite a lot of breakfast. But I stopped before I got uncomfortable. We drove back to my mum's to rescue her from taking care of the children, and took her out to lunch. Another restaurant. It was ok, and I ate about half my meal. Still full from breakfast. We hung around mum's house -- I explored my iPhone -- then went to my grandad's house for the big family Mothers' Day/Poppa's birthday dinner. With cake. Slept at mum's again, on the horrible narrow hard futon sofa-bed.

Monday morning we headed off to Cronulla, a southern suburb of Sydney, to a hotel on the beach. The kids played on the sand, and even a bit in the edges of the water as it was a warm morning although it got cold in the afternoon and we spent some time at the park and in the hotel room watching TV. Crepes for lunch, Thai for dinner. No exercise for me other than a bit of walking around. While the others were on the beach I sat on the rocks. Although I love the concept of the beach, I have realised that in actual fact I hate sand, cold water, big waves, sharks, seaweed, jellyfish, and sunburn. So my ideal beach holiday is to sit in the warm shade with a view of the ocean, with a cocktail and a book.

Tuesday morning we met my brother-in-law and his wife for breakfast at a cafe. Bacon, eggs, and some of Jasmine's pancake with cream and maple syrup. My stomach had now expanded to be able to fit lots in. A play in the park, then it was the reason we had stayed in Sydney the extra couple of days; Tim's grandmother's funeral. Apart from the slight worry that my children were very bored over the hour and a half (although they were, as always, angelic), it was a lovely event. Tim made a speech and his brother and cousins sang. All of his side of the family was there.

We hadn't had lunch after our late big breakfast but there was an afternoon tea after the ceremony that was plentiful and varied enough to count as a meal. Chatting with family and an old friend, there with her new baby, was one of many highlights of the trip.

Finally the drive home, with McDonald's again on the way.

The only ones of those thirteen meals that weren't too big and/or plain unhealthy were probably the two breakfasts at my mum's. And no exercise. I left here last Friday feeling rather happy with my appearance, got back Tuesday night feeling bloated and flabby, with a bucket full of good resolutions that fell at the first hurdle today.

I weighed myself at home this morning, 76.8 kg, up about half a kg over the four days and more than a kg since my last WW weigh-in. I walked the kids to school, then came home to find the power off. Only after some confusion did I remember that letter we got saying the power would be off all day for the second time in two weeks. No Kinect exercises. No kettle for tea. No computer work or games. No way to prepare myself a healthy lunch from the very few ingredients left in the house. No HEAT. It is well below freezing at night now and pretty cold during the day. I went to a cafe but the tea was horrible and the baby at the next table smelled of vomit. I did the grocery shopping -- lots of fresh fruit and vegetables -- and came home to huddle under a blanket and read The Hunger Games -- which I enjoyed very much.

My food today was ok until I got to the three Lindor balls this evening. And no exercise again. Luckily tomorrow is another day.

Mother's Day

After healthy eating and vigorous exercise yesterday, my weight this morning was back down to 81.4kg. Yay! But it is Mother's Day and I am miserable.

I got presents in bed this morning; but then Jasmine had a birthday party to go to, some distance away, so my husband spent all morning shuttling her back and forth. I didn't mind that, but now he and the kids have gone out for a bike ride. I had a bit of a cry straight after they left. Partly because I am feeling lonely, and sad that they wouldn't do what I wanted to do (Singstar), but also because I feel such a coward. They wanted me to come with them and I was wavering the whole time but I am still a bit nervous on my new bike and it was just easier to sit at home. And now I feel awful. Another life fail.

I feel like I have spent Mother's Day playing computer games (alone), reading (alone), Singstar (alone) and folding clothes (alone). And when my family gets home I will be in the kitchen making dinner (alone). What a fun day. It is partly my fault, I could have chosen to go with them everywhere, but I am certainly not feeling very pampered.