Goodbye old library

Saturday:

So I turned 49 the other day, one year until 50. This year I am determined to focus on my health. Sleep. Exercise. More fruit and vegetables. Water. I have made a start on some of these things.

I had my last day at my old workplace yesterday. We shared a lunch and everyone seemed sad to see me go. It wasn't a bad job, and I liked the other staff. I have a week off now (it's school holidays, Tim stayed home with the kids the first week) then I start at my new workplace. Same job, different location. It's an improvement in every way - closer, higher pay, less busy etc - except that it has less job security.

I've been having a hard time the last few weeks. I've been in peri-menopause for years (it seems like I've been saying "at least five years" for a long time) and my main symptom is night sweats. At the moment it's nearly every night. I wake up all sweaty - and then get very cold because it's the middle of winter and being in damp pyjamas is no joke - and then I rarely get back to sleep. So I am utterly exhausted. Dragging myself through the days, going to bed before the kids at night. I'll be seeing my gyno but I couldn't get an appointment for another six weeks. I plan to take a lot of naps while I've got this time off, and also try some vitamin/herbal medicine.

Week two

Sunday:

I've got through a second week of full time work. Not as stressed and exhausted as the first week, but still very tired at the end of each day. A bit disillusioned that I'm doing very little of the things I was actually trained for - like cataloguing and helping people with research. I'm doing basic library tasks like helping people borrow and return books; but a lot of my time seems to helping students with computer stuff that I have no training or experience in. Some I can do - like show them how to format an assignment and print it - but often they need more complex tech help that I have no idea about, like getting them wi-fi, or helping them use computer programs I've never even seen before. I watch my colleagues and learn. But it's not what I became a Library Technician for.

I spend about half of each day on the circulation desk helping students, the rest in the office doing things like creating a PowerPoint slideshow for Harmony Day and updating lists of resources we have for the teachers of each subject. My favourite is when I occasionally get to work with actual books - like when I noticed we had different editions of the same book shelved in different places so I corrected the call number for the misfiled one and printed new labels.

Well, if it's not the perfect job I need it as a stepping stone to a better one. Maybe something better will come up. But I know the computer side is a big part of libraries now.

I'm more exhausted this weekend than I was during the week. Maybe I'm coming down with something.

Long week

Sunday:

I’ve finished my first full week of the new job. It’s been a bit turbulent. On Monday there was heavier traffic than I was expecting and I was 15 mins late, which wasn’t a drama for them but I found it embarrassing since it was only my second day. Lots of new things to learn all day and then horrible traffic on the way home. I was stressed about my kids home alone, and stressed about all the before and after school activities I had to get them to somehow while working full time. I was physically and mentally exhausted and miserable, wondering if I could tough this out.

Tuesday was better, I felt I was getting the hang of things. But then Wednesday Tim had to get up early for a flight so I woke too, did the grocery shopping before work, and I was on the circulation desk all day (helping people, mostly on my feet) and I was so tired again I wanted to quit. Thursday I was on late shift so I got to lie down for 15 mins in the morning after getting the kids to school and doing some housework before work ... I felt less exhausted Friday so maybe I’m getting used to it?

The job itself is fine, I’m quite enjoying it and the people are nice. I’ll write more about that next time.

I didn’t take Duromine this week, I was worried it could contribute to anxiety (although it’s never had that effect on me before) and difficulty sleeping. I did sleep better without it. But I’m back on it now. I am really keen to lose a few more kilograms. I’m determined to fit into those lovely black trousers this winter!

Jasmine had exciting news, she moved up to level 3 in Acrogymnastics at the start of this year and now she’s jumped up to 3A. She will be in a trio for the first time, instead of a pair, one of two bases with a littler girl as the ‘top’. From 3A the competitions get more serious, they judge things like synchronicity and the dance elements as well as the lifts and throws. It means up to 9 hours a week practice instead of 4! And proper fancy costumes instead of the team uniform. And National competitions instead of just State! So proud of her.

Limbo

Thursday:

I’ve been having a really low energy week. I was exhausted on Sunday after cooking all day for the family dinner, but thought nothing of it as I’d tried a new recipe which is always stressful - it turned out well - in the midst of a house full of excited children. But then I felt the same all Monday, and kind of depressed on Tuesday. But the last couple of days I’ve embraced it. If I’m tired, I’ll just enjoy reading and watching old Project Runway. I’m in Limbo at the moment; finished my studies but not yet in a job, so it makes sense I feel a little adrift. I keep myself busy with things like sorting my photos and doing my home book cataloguing project, but they are not the same as having a real purpose to your days.

I’ve also been thinking about writing another book. I sent my first manuscript to a couple of publishers last year (no response) before deciding it wasn’t the best I could do. I’m really proud of myself for writing a whole novel and I love it but it has its faults. I can do better on my next attempt. I’ve had a few ideas for quite a while, but now I have concepts that tie it all together and I really should start writing.

Aiden is away at school camp at the moment. In Canberra, where we lived until two years ago! He should know many of the places they are visiting quite well. Questacon, the interactive science museum, for example - we had an annual pass there for many years. I just wish they weren’t there in the middle of winter, it is much colder there than here in Sydney. It can be miserable down by the lake where most of the public buildings are when an icy wind blows over the water. They had to wear full school uniform, which I’ve never seen for camp before. Extra layers underneath! I miss my baby, but it does mean I can sleep in in the morning! Jasmine gets herself to school without assistance,  only Aiden has to be dragged out of bed.

Dress code

Thursday:

Today one of the librarians came in with her shirt unbuttoned rather low. She’s an attractive woman, always nicely dressed with skilful makeup, and I wasn’t sure if the unbuttoning was deliberate. I felt that if I said something, I would be implying that I disapproved and what if it was a style choice? She wasn’t actually revealing much. After a little while she looked down and commented that her button kept coming undone, and calmly did it back up. I think I was right not to say anything. But I would want to know, if it was me and I was dealing with students.

The cookery school is directly opposite the library. On Tuesday the students brought in a menu of things that they were making and that we could buy for lunch very cheaply. I didn’t go, but both the librarians did. Today the barista students brought in boxes of cupcakes and trays of coffee and hot chocolate! All free. We put it on the library counter to share with everyone who came in. I had half a cupcake (too sweet). I’m a bit worried about being plied with food twice a week!

I’m finding this whole work thing exhausting. Learning new things, and on my feet most of the time, and interacting with lots of people. A bit different to my usual routine! And I don’t get a lunch break because I’m only doing part time hours, only a short tea break. Today I had to remind them I needed one. No wonder I get home and collapse. I’m sure I’ll get used to it. I am enjoying it, even if I don’t get time to take a breath.

No Show

Friday:

I continue very tired, and now rather achy all over, and Aiden was also home sick today. This morning his voice was so hoarse he sounded like a heavy smoker. He’s much better this evening, but I’ve got worse as the day has gone on.

Unfortunately Tim and I were supposed to go out tonight, some time ago he bought tickets to see Guy Sebastian (he won Australian Idol about ten years ago, I think the first series) who we both like. We had some obstacles; difficulty finding someone who could babysit, my resistance when I found out I had to get to the venue by myself at night in the city and meet Tim there - Tim managed to solve all problems. But he couldn’t work around sickness. I'm never that keen on going out in the evening anyway, but I feel sorry for Tim who planned it all.

And now I’m worried about the exam I did yesterday. I thought it went ok at the time, but I did notice that I wasn’t one of the first to finish when I usually am. Today I feel so slow and foggy. I hope yesterday was just the slow part. I do know I added some extra information that wasn't strictly necessary, and also being puzzled over one bit for a while before I worked it out - talking to Lauren afterwards she didn't add the extra stuff and she thought the exam was easy... she finished way before me... and I don't actually remember checking over my work maybe I did... dammit I hate being sick!

I seem to be catching up on my sleep. Solid sleep at night, another nap this afternoon. can't keep my eyes open. This post has been written over several sessions.

That last job interview I went to, some weeks ago, I realised how shabby my “good” shoes had become. My usual footwear are sneakers, or a couple of variants of sneaker-like shoes. I have winter boots, and one good pair of black shoes which I keep in their box between occasional good-shoes-required events. But they had become rather scuffed and peeling, time for a new pair! Last week I went shoe shopping, a very rare occasion (I get new sneakers about once a year, anything else approximately never), and bought two pairs of shoes; comfy black almost-sneakers and fancier (and expensive) black shoes for work, should I ever get a job. When I got home I looked at the fancy ones again. What the hell was I thinking? Long and pointy with little black bows on the front? I was never going to wear those. So not “me”. I’ll be taking those back - I was planning to today except for being sick. Instead, I ordered online ankle boots that I’d liked in the shop except they only had brown ones and I wanted black. They arrived today and I love them. Now they are “me”. Here is the comparison me/not me.

I burned dinner tonight. Luckily salvageable. Just not thinking very well. But apologies if this post doesn't make sense.

Tired

Thursday:

I had my second cataloguing exam this morning. I think it went ok. Afterwards, my teacher told me about another cataloguing job going (a paid job this time, not a short-term internship, which I haven’t heard about yet), but it’s way over the other side of the city and would be about two hours travel each way. No way I can manage that within the kids’ school hours! I might investigate whether there is any option for working from home, but that defeats part of the purpose of working, for me. I’ve been home by myself too long.

I was feeling crushingly tired last night and went to bed early. I wasn’t worried, I’m usually tired in the evening. But today I was exhausted all day. Walking up stairs was like climbing a mountain, I could hardly keep my eyes open in class (not great in an exam!), fell asleep on the train on they way home and then napped at home until it was time to take the kids to gymnastics. Takeaway for dinner. I assume I’m coming down with something, hope it’s not too bad.

Speaking of sleeping in class, that girl Jessica still spends most lessons face down on her desk. When she is awake, she can be quite argumentative, often about random things nothing to do with the work, like politics. But mostly she sleeps. This afternoon she snoozed through the teacher’s explanation and while we were working on an exercise. Then we went around the class giving the answers. She was prodded awake but obviously she had no answers to give! She hadn’t even turned on her computer. After a moment the teacher moved on. I still wonder why on earth she is there! Why does she come to class? And why do the teachers put up with it? I suppose they may know something I don’t, that excuses her behaviour.

Lauren was having a bad day. She’s the other girl up for the internship. In the morning exam, right near the end, she knocked over her water bottle. She and Jake next to her had to scramble to keep everything out of the puddle, and it took her three trips to the bathroom at the other end of the hall to get enough paper towel to clean it up. But at least it was only water. At lunch, I was sitting with her and a couple of other people when she spilled her salad (with dressing) onto herself. And in the afternoon class she suddenly said she was getting a really strong smell... she investigated her backpack and found that her bottle of hand sanitizer had ‘exploded’ in her words. She wearily dragged herself and her bag off to the bathroom. Some days maybe you just shouldn’t get out of bed.

Speaking of which, time for sleeping.

Jelly legs

Thursday:

Report on Day Two...
The Duromine didn't seem to affect my sleep at all. It was the same pattern as it has been most nights for a while now, get to sleep fairly easily, stay asleep until 5 am, an hour of restless tossing and turning and short periods of drifting off, then another hour of lying awake before I get up. And none of the 'cotton mouth' that a majority of users seem to get.

It was my day at TAFE. I always do a lot of walking on that day, over 10,000 steps just getting from place to place, but today it seemed harder than usual. Hills were exhausting. I chose to walk up three flights of stairs instead of taking the lift, normally that wouldn't challenge me much. Today it left me with jelly legs and out of breath! Unfortunate if I get less energy rather than the boundless amounts most people seem to get! I've been on the forums and it has happened to a few people. Like all side effects it should pass - I hope.

The actual promise of the diet pill is as a appetite suppressant. It seems to be doing that, a bit. I've eaten lots of small meals and snacks over the day. I definitely get hungry. But I can eat a smaller amount and be satisfied. And I haven't been tempted by junk. No apparent cravings.

A possible alternative cause of the tiredness is that I actually started eating healthy on Tuesday, a day before starting the pills (because you have to take them first thing and I didn't get them until late morning) so this is day three of no sugar or junk food. Could be withdrawal? Or the lower calories, but I am definitely still eating a reasonable amount of food. I want to eat a bit less, still getting too hungry between meals.

Anyway, I'm hoping that the weakness will pass. I'm due to increase my dosage after the first week, so that will be interesting to see if the appetite or side effects change. I can always drop back to the lower dose if that works for me better.

Here is the nice bench I sit on at lunchtime at TAFE, about the only pretty spot in the rather grim campus.

Oh, good news, my friend Sarah is back in class. She is working part time but her schedule changed so she is in one of my classes now. Yay! She is the English one. Looks a bit like Adele. So that was nice.

(Edit: Tim says he is crushingly tired the past few days and blames it on current pollen count or pollution from burn-off, so my jelly legs and lack of energy could be environmentally caused.)

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.

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.

Tired and cranky

Tuesday:

Today was a struggle. I had a bad night, partly with worse than usual pelvic pain, partly because my poor husband had to get up at 3:30 to be at work in the city at 5:00 (very unusual occurrence), partly because I had to get up six times to pee. SIX! You'd think I'd been drinking ridiculous amounts but I only increased my intake to eight glasses - and that includes my two cups of tea. Only one glass was after dinner. Yet going from my usual (maybe four glasses) up to eight sent my kidneys into overdrive. It does always happen when I increase liquid, but not usually to that extent.

So, losing that much liquid means losing a lot of weight overnight, right? Not really. 200 grams.

Anyway, so I was tired and cranky. And I had a lot of pelvic pain all day, which I don't usually have much of during the day (I did when this all started last year but now it's generally only at night, can't wait to have the surgery and get this fixed!) And it's day two of no sugar/low carb. I compromised by having a bigger lunch and dinner with more calories that I otherwise would have allowed myself, but still no sugar.

Time to smile and remember gratitude!
It's a lovely day outside. I am looking out my window into our shady courtyard with sunny side garden behind it, and three different flowering plants in different shades of pink.
Tim's cousin just sent me information about removing trees on your own property, apparently even if for some reason we don't get council approval we can do it anyway because we are in a bushfire area!
I could go and have a nap if I really wanted but I think I will wait and just look forward to a good sleep tonight.
My cup of tea isn't entirely horrible, even without sugar.
My foot continues to be pain free and walking is a pleasure not a trial.

Life is not all bad!

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.

Sunday

Sunday:

I weighed in for my next dietbet. I'm up 200 grams since yesterday. My starting weight for the dietbet is actually a little higher that my "true" weight because I have to be clothed for the photos!

Really exhausted all day. Probably a combination of bad food and the usual tiredness I get from hosting a dinner party. I had several mini-naps (too noisy to sleep with guitars and children and everything) but could hardly keep my eyes open.

I was definitely craving fresh healthy food. I tried the poached eggs function on my egg cooker and it worked well. Eggs, cucumber and a nectarine for breakfast.

Tomato soup for lunch.

A cup of tea in the afternoon (still no sugar!). I wasn't very hungry all day. Then around 5 pm as I was preparing the roast for dinner, I was suddenly ravenous! No wonder, I'd only had around 300 calories so far. I could have had a little snack to tide me over, but I knew there was a delicious dinner on the way if I waited so I did! And I piled up my plate. And wolfed it down. I didn't eat quite all this, because the kids stole half my diced mixed vegetables (curses that they ever discovered how good that is!).

Hopefully I'm now fully recovered from the excesses of yesterday.

Better day

Monday:

Week 1 of my new eating plan done! So how did I go? I started at 84.5 kg, down to 83.0 kg, so that is 1.5 lost. Nice, but that was nearly all in the first two days, I need to get the wriggly line moving down again. I was pretty good with the food except for the past two days when I definitely ate a lot extra including treat foods. I also didn't drink all my water on the weekend, or exercise yesterday. Bit of a slump at the end of the week.

I have been really tired the past couple of days - "can hardly get out of bed" tired - and I may have been a bit sick, or it may have been my body adjusting to much lower carbs. Apparently if you stick to it your body switches over to burning fat instead. My diet isn't super low carb but I get carbs from fruit and vegetables not bread or biscuits. I still have things like potato and mangoes that LCHF people would turn away in horror from. Before the weekend I felt pretty good, and wasn't hungry very often except right before meals (when you SHOULD feel hungry!) so I'm sticking with it and I felt much less fatigued today.

Tim is back at work today after the Christmas/New Year break, but he has more time off later in January. The kids don't go back to school until the end of January, this is their long summer holiday. Today we only went to the library and did the grocery shopping. Pouring rain all afternoon, too heavy to even want to go out in the car. It's going to be a cool rainy week so I need to plan some indoor activities. Urg, Chipmunks movie I guess.

Nectarine and yoghurt for breakfast.

I always remember to photograph my breakfast but not other meals, I guess because at other mealtimes I am hungry and wanting to dig in immediately, breakfast not so much. Lunch was rotisserie chicken and salad. For an afternoon snack I roasted some vegetables in the oven. Dinner was san choy bau - pork mince and vegetables with oyster sauce in lettuce cups. I had plenty more than this, this was just the first two leaves.

I stuck to my calorie limit and had no treat foods. Very happy with that. But no exercise and only 3800 steps.

Sleep, beautiful sleep

Sunday:

Mostly these days I get around 6 hours sleep a night, 7 if I am lucky, and often need a nap during the day. Yesterday I was feeling tired and a bit unwell all day, went to bed early last night, and slept TEN HOURS! How awesome is that! I was doing a little internal happy dance about it this morning.

Not quite so happy about continuing tiredness throughout the day. I had no interest in breakfast and just had a cup of tea, and a nap. I did have lunch, then another nap while Tim took the kids out. When I woke from that one I was feeling much better ... and very hungry. Unfortunately I dove into high calorie foods. Chocolate, cheese, cashews, and a couple of bites of a lemon cupcake my husband made yesterday (I managed to throw the rest away). Not great choices! I should have prepared myself a proper healthy snack.

I had a normal dinner but ended up with my highest calorie count this week, and over my self-imposed limit. Not very happy with myself about that. And no exercise. Well tomorrow is Monday, always a good day to refresh and restart.

And I got a lot of sleep!

No tolerance for unhealthy food

Saturday:

I hate mornings. Mornings suck.

I think I'm starting to feel the effects of going on a low-carb low-sugar diet. Tired and headachy, a bit irritable, a bit melancholy. I know I'll get used to it if I push on, and I am still having some carbs and even sugar (a little bit in my tea) so it isn't cold turkey. Where does that phrase come from, I wonder? Stopping something "going cold turkey"? I'll have to look it up.

I don't have any energy or motivation for work or fun. I hope this phase ends soon.

Cheesy broccoli omelette for breakfast was pretty nice, but ended up way more calories than I expected.

Always track before eating! It makes the rest of the day a bit tricky with so much of the calorie budget gone. But I pulled it back with a mostly-salad lunch (with a small steak).

In the morning I crawled back into bed for a while then I forced myself to get up and we walked to the library before it closed at noon. 30 minute there and back. Tim had to hold my hand and pull me up the hill! Honestly, it felt like my muscles were completely out of energy.

In the afternoon I read my Mediterranean recipe library book, watched TV, played computer games with the family. Tim made butter chicken for dinner and I had a small portion, quinoa instead of fluffy white rice, and steamed vegetables. Then a bit later ate some chocolate. And felt sick almost immediately. Where has my tolerance for unhealthy food gone? It's like my body is rebelling. I suppose that is a good thing, except I don't feel sick until after. I need to start feeling ill as I reach for it so I don't eat it! Or it needs to taste horrible. Actually the chocolate didn't taste as yummy as usual...

Still a reasonable calorie count today, 30 min exercise, most of my water (I should still achieve that before bedtime).

Last day

Wednesday:

Today was completely exhausting. I woke at around 2am with my arms really sore, I assume from all the lifting and carrying heavy things up to the skip bin yesterday. I did get some more sleep before dawn, but also did a lot of tossing and turning in that time. My right forearm in particular was quite painful. I got up as soon as it was light.

It was a long day of packing and packing. Every time I thought we were nearly done, we found there was some more things. I think we've got about 140 boxes now. The only break we took was to walk up to the school to our children's last school assembly here in Canberra. Jasmine was playing the trumpet in the school band and Aiden's class was hosting the assembly and he got to speak several times to introduce the next segment. So it was a great ending to their schooling here. And I got to sit down for an hour!

We are mostly done now but there will still be a bit of running around while the removalists are here in the morning. My arms feel ok right now but my legs and feet are so tired and aching. I'm going to have a hot bath before bed to try to ward off some of the pain. I don't know if I'll be able to walk tomorrow, and I need to! Packing doesn't seem like hard work, but I must have done the equivalent of several hundred squats today as I put things into boxes.

See you in Sydney.

3am

Tuesday:

I've had a couple of good night's sleep lately, but not last night. I was awake from around 3:30am. A combination of things kept me awake. Thinking about all the stuff I had to do (not worrying, just thinking and planning), a bit of that pelvic pain that has never entirely gone away and is more noticeable at night, Tim's heavy breathing as he's an asthmatic. It's left me a bit tired today but not too bad. Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight.

It was a very busy day, our second last day of packing. We ordered a skip bin to be put outside our house - the fourth one in about six months! - and loaded that up with more old furniture, ancient paint tins, and some other rubbish that isn't going to fit in our normal household bin this week. More up and down the driveway carrying heavy things! I was very happy that my knee was fine. Then packing. Then my friend Caroline came over for our last afternoon tea visit. Then more packing.

Tonight I cooked my last dinner in this house, we're here all day tomorrow but I'll be finishing packing the kitchen stuff and also turning off the fridge so we'll go out for dinner.

Time for one more box then I get to collapse in front of the TV.

100 boxes

Thursday:

Well guess what we did today. No prizes sorry, you were right, more packing. We have hit the 100 box point. That was my total estimate after getting to about 50, but we still have plenty more to pack so I hardly dare make another guess. Another 25 at least but maybe a lot more. You get thrown off when a food processor with all its attachments takes up nearly a whole box by itself!

Doing all this packing is more physical activity than I am used to, but a lot less than Tim usually does so he takes the kids out when they get home from school. He wonders why I don't want to come for a walk, meanwhile I'm half asleep in my chair.

Some of my tiredness may have an additional cause, we've had the worst pollen counts for years - much worse than last year when I was obviously affected by hayfever - so it could be partly that. On Tuesday, when I was feeling particularly sleepy all day, they said afterwards that the pollen counts were through the roof that day. I might be better off inside for a few more days.

One week until moving day.

[Later: After the kids came home with their pollen-covered shirts, and I also had some windows open for a while, I got really headachy and sleepy and burning eyes - definitely hay fever! I'm just going to stay inside with a bag over my head until Spring is over.]

Two slow days

Tuesday:

I haven't talked much about healthy living lately because I keep waiting to have a good day so I can write about that. I have good intentions every day. But I rarely make it to lunchtime before making bad choices. Today I made it all the way to mid-afternoon before I ate some chocolate-covered honeycomb. That's better than I've done for ages so I'm calling today a partial win.

I felt the effects of that 50g of almost pure sugar pretty quickly. So dopey I could barely keep my eyes open. And of course my blood glucose shot up. I had a short nap and felt much better.

Wednesday:

Later yesterday evening (unrelated to my Crunchie Bar, I'm sure) I had a rather nasty stomach upset. I had a restless sweaty night and still not feeling great this morning. Luckily I'm feeling on top of stuff I have to do. I'm packing a bit every day, but most of it will be done when Tim has a couple of weeks off work.