Doing something right

Sunday:

Jasmine had her Year 10 Formal (end of year school dinner and dance) this week. She looked beautiful. I can't believe she is nearly 16! We had her hair professionally done and it looked amazing. (Very expensive though!) She and her friends took a limo to the function centre which was on a clifftop down the coast a bit. I think I've been to a wedding there. I took lots of photos at home of course, including of her spinning by the pool.

There was a vote at the Formal, and a few people were given "Miss Universe"-type sashes. One of Jasmine's friends was given "Best-Dressed". Jasmine was given one that says "Quiet but Crazy". 

At the moment I feel like I must be doing something right. In an exercise at a mental health seminar at school, Jasmine was supposed to write something she hated about herself on a piece of paper and then screw it up and throw it away to symbolise not letting those feelings have power over her or something. Anyway, she couldn't think of anything she hated about herself!

And Aiden brought an essay home in which he said he liked my cooking better than restaurants, and on Friday I suggested getting takeaway but he wanted me to make dinner at home. A fine compliment from a 13 year old boy!

Jasmine is coming to my workplace for a week of work experience next week. Hopefully that will be fun for both of us. I wrote up a program for her that had her mainly under my supervision but I was told to change it and share her around with other library staff. I'll mostly only work with her on preparing and presenting a storytime with the little kids. We often have work experience students, but mostly they are older and studying for library specific degree - like me last year. A lovely girl, Carlie, just finished her time with us yesterday. It was great of my boss to accept Jasmine, a Year 10 student. My old boss wouldn't, last semester, because she was worried if she had to discipline Jasmine I would get mad!

It will be my last week of work this year, and I don't know what is happening next year. Hopefully there will be more work for me when term starts. But there will be big upheavals in the structure of TAFE soon and no-one knows what is going to happen. I may be looking for work again. At least I have some real experience now to put on my resume, and more people to offer as referees.

Bushfires haven't threatened my home, but the air quality has been horrible from fires further north. Choking smoke and dust. Magnificent sunsets though.

It's the first day of summer today but we're going to have a fairly cool week. The weather is all over the place. Hopefully the firefighters can keep us all safe.

Summer and the tree

Friday:

First day of summer and it was a scorcher!

After four weeks with pretty much no exercise (I was sick most of that time, I’ve finished my course of antibiotics and I’m fine now except for a disordered gut microbiome) I decided to start easing back into it. I did 15 minutes of dance and stopped while I still felt ok. I probably could have done more but the last couple of times I tried I set back my recovery so I’m being careful.

In the afternoon we went in the pool. Jasmine is still pink in the arms and face after last weekend so she wore a shirt over her cossie and we didn’t stay in long.

Saturday:

We had another swim this morning, then storms swept in and gave the parched garden a nice watering. I did another 15 minutes dance exercise.

After lunch we put up our Christmas tree. Red and silver theme this year:

I've had a poster of Legolas for many years, it's been through at least two moves with us. Jasmine had the idea of getting him into the Christmas spirit:

The tip of the arrow really does follow you around the room! No matter where you stand, he's aiming at you.

Hot

Tuesday:

It was so hot today. I think they said on the news it was the hottest December day for 10 years. I stayed at home because I was expecting a parcel, but it wasn't a day to be out anyway. Air conditioning all the way! Tomorrow will be the same. Even with the air con on, I feel a bit sick with the heat. Wish we had our pool!

The illustrated holiday

Saturday:

Just got back from a lovely holiday to Surfer's Paradise, a small city on Queensland's Gold Coast (north-eastern coast of Australia, all golden beaches and blue skies). Beautiful mild summer weather, perfect for beach and pool-going, and ironically we left a heat-wave back home.

We started with a visit to my mum and then my niece in Sydney, then flew north. I don't like heights and I'm not a good flyer but I did ok and it went smoothly. Given my fear of heights, I was a bit worried about our holiday apartment on the 33rd floor:

But I was fine. Admittedly I only went out on the balcony a couple of times. I loved lying on the bed looking out at this view!

The first afternoon we just hung around the hotel pool, which had a pirate ship waterslide. My daughter must have gone down it a hundred times.

The next day we walked to the beach. The surf was a bit rough so we stayed well within our depth and toyed with the waves and built sand castles. I spent quite a while sitting on the sand with waves washing over my legs. Very peaceful and lovely. Unfortunately, despite being covered in sunscreen and only being out for an hour, I got quite sunburnt in a distinct line on my shoulders and chest where my cossie had covered when I was putting the sunscreen on, but then the material must have moved down a little bit as I moved around. Burnt on the first morning! Curse my lily-white skin.

We stayed out of the sun in the middle of the day by going on an Aquaduck after lunch. This is a bus that goes into water (calm water, Surfer's Paradise is a long strip a few blocks wide with an ocean beach on one side and the broadwater on the other) and chuggs along beside the enormous houses of the rich and famous. I spotted a couple of dolphins. Then in the afternoon it was back to the hotel pool for more slides and then time in the indoor heated pool and spa.

Next day we went to Movieworld ("Hollywood on the Gold Coast!") which I think is like a miniature Disneyland. Rides, shows of motorbike stunt riding and precision car driving, a short 4D Ice Age movie where the chairs shake and water gets sprayed at you at appropriate moments, people wandering around in moviestar costumes. Willy Wonka, Marilyn Monroe etc. The kids loved it, not so much me. I didn't fit on the kiddie rides and the adult ones were much too scary for me. I got to try Ben & Jerry's ice cream which I was very interested in doing because it seemed to be so popular in the US but it was horrible! Some kind of chocolate variety - chocolate temptation I think. So sickly sweet and rich. It cost a fortune and I could hardly eat any of it. What a waste. However, the kids had a great day and Tim got to go on a couple of grown-up rides so it was a good day overall.

Another morning at the pool. We unwisely stayed out for more than two hours and this time poor Jasmine got quite badly burnt on the arms and Tim on his shoulders. We spent the hot after-lunch period playing putt putt golf (mini golf) in a sort of indoor warehouse space so we were out of the sun. We had planned to go to the beach in the late afternoon but couldn't risk any more time in the sun so it was back to the pool which was shaded by the building in the afternoon.

On our last full day we went to SeaWorld which was my favourite day. Sea-lion and dolphin shows, a SpongeBob Squarepants parade, more rides for kids and grown-ups (and I fit on the kids' ones), patting manta-rays, an enormous lagoon aquarium, a SpongeBob 3D movie (not as gimmicky as the 4D movie, but better), dinosaur island (not sure how that fits with the sea theme) and my favourite was Buccaneer Bay which involves sailing around a little bay in a pirate ship shooting water cannons at people on shore while they fire back. We got soaked! Awesome.

Dinosaur island, obviously.

Buccaneer Bay!

Dolphins showing off nose strength!

 

We tried really hard every day to avoid sunburn but I guess that was impossible unless we had stayed in the room all day. Jasmine's arms were exposed to more sun as we walked around SeaWorld and even Aiden, who has more olive skin, was a bit pink.

 

On the final morning the kids had one last quick swim before we packed up and flew home again. It turned out that we only played at the beach once, on the first morning, but we were near the beach many times walking to and from restaurants for lunch and other outings so we got to enjoy the sight and the sea-breeze without the sand in our cossies. 

 

We were exhausted at the end of every day and I usually crashed at the same time as the kids each night, straight after dinner. We ate out every meal except for two breakfasts of fruit and toast in our room, and also had snacks while out and about. I haven't weighed myself yet!

 

The flight back was a bit more trying as there was a bit of turbulence at the end. I spent the final couple of minutes hyperventilating and hanging on to the arm rests, in tears. But we got down safely.

 

I'm not in any of these photos because I took them with my iPhone, Tim also took lots of photos with an actual camera so I'm in some of those. I might post some after I've seen what they look like. Or not.

 

It was a really great holiday but I also love being home again. My own house, my own bed. Can't beat home. 

Too low

Friday:

At the moment, after my scare on Wednesday, my whole focus is on food. All day it's: what am I eating next? When? Does it have enough carbs? Too many carbs? Is it low-GI? Is it time to test my blood glucose again yet? Has two hours passed since I last ate so I can test my blood then have a snack?

Yesterday I was so paranoid about my blood sugar going too high that I didn't have enough carbs. My blood sugar was too low (not hypo-low, but within the range it should be before breakfast not where it should be after meals) and I felt tired and lackluster all day. Then I had pasta for dinner and my blood sugar went up appropriately and I suddenly felt much better.

I tried to eat a bit more carbohydrate at breakfast today but my blood sugar was stubbornly low two and a half hours later (I wasn't home to check at the two hour point). I am still waiting to test for lunch. Who would have thought it would be hard to get my blood glucose high enough?

I went for two walks yesterday, today I plan to do some dancing once I've digested lunch a bit. We've had a cool spring but it is starting to heat up now that we're only a week away from summer so I think I'm going to have to move the exercise indoors into air conditioning. The gym and the Kinect. I may end up putting off running until autumn, which is a bit of a shame, but my fair skin and I are not fans of summer. It's not really hot yet, so I could still do some running training. Exercise isn't wasted even if I don't end up doing a 5K race this year.

One of the best things about summer (still thinking about food, I'm afraid) is all the lovely fruit. Apples and oranges and kiwi fruit are nice enough, but then the weather warms up and the fruit bowl is full of mangos and peaches and nectarines and grapes and passionfruit and strawberries and watermelon. Today at the shops I bought a whole tray of mangos. Our neighbours over the back fence have a row of fruit trees that reach over our side. Last year they trimmed them all back hard and we got nothing (very disappointing) but the kids are already harvesting mulberries every day and I think there is going to be a bumper crop of plums. There is a quince tree too, I've never tried one but I understand you have to cook them because they are very astringent. Then again, some people say you have to cook tamarillos and I love them raw. I like my fruit tangy sour. I'll grab a couple of quinces if any come over our side.

photo of mulberry by Rosh Sillars

later: still low after my carefully carb-counted lunch, even lower after exercise during which I felt quite dizzy. If this continues over the weekend I will contact the diabetes people to get some help managing my levels.