Wildlife Park

Saturday:

To celebrate my niece Emma's third birthday, we all went to a wildlife park. It was mostly Australian animals and farm animals for petting with, rather incongruously, a couple of tigers and a small group of meerkats. I assume they are gradually morphing into a "real" zoo. We had morning tea, wandered around the zoo, and saw a reptile show. It was a beautiful day for it, much cooler than recently but not raining like it has most of the week.

Meerkat keeping watch.

Koala, asleep as usual.

Pass the parcel.

Rather oddly, a pen full of guinea pigs.

Lots of kangaroos resting in the shade, including baby joeys.

Emu hoping my iPhone was edible.

Tiger.

Holidays!

Sunday:

We just got back from a few days away it Sydney. It is less than 4 hours drive away, but we left near-freezing temperatures and sleet (there was a chance of snow today, apparently) and enjoyed sunshine and walking around without even a jumper on! The difference between the coast and the mountains, I guess.

We started on Thursday with an afternoon at the Australian Gymnastics Championships, at the Sydney Olympic venue. I thought Aiden would enjoy it as that is his chosen sport (six hours of coaching a week) but he was completely bored. The next day rain was forecast so we hung around the city. We went to the Museum of Natural History, ten-pin bowling in the afternoon, and walked and walked and walked. I was exhausted and went to bed at the same time as the kids.

Saturday we went to Taronga Zoo. The Sydney Zoo is pretty special as it is on a steep hill overlooking the beautiful harbour. More walking! (You start at the top.) But first you get a fun ferry ride over the harbour from the city. At the end of the day the kids wanted to go on the cable car so we walked back up to the top and rode down to the ferry over the top of the zoo. While passing over the elephant enclosure we saw one of the elephants urinating. Apparently they drink around 120 litres a day and it looked like she let it all go at once. The kids thought it was hilarious, the absolute highlight of the holiday. And it distracted me from my terror of heights.

I was in bed by 7.45, before even Jasmine! Tiring day.

Finally today we saw family before driving home. My niece Emma is 4 months old now.

We did a lot of eating. We had hotel buffet breakfast twice, and restaurants for dinner but only light meals at lunchtime. I wasn't able to do my carb-loading, (perhaps "wasn't able to" is an exaggeration), I didn't want to have pasta every night and toast for breakfast instead of bacon! And at my sister-in-law's for lunch today there was only roast pumpkin which I don't like. So I will be starting my three days tomorrow, and doing the test on Thursday.

I'm feeling rested after the time away, although it was physically more demanding than my usual lifestyle. Mentally rested, perhaps. I did have some allergy headaches, though, and I am really looking forward to my own bed.

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.

More of the usual

Friday:

My dad was here visiting Tuesday and Wednesday. He used to be so active and sporty, but he is over 70 now with some heart problems and high blood pressure and he needs a lot more rest than he used to. We went to the zoo and whenever the kids and I watched an animal for more than a minute he sat on the nearest bench. And he sounded out of breath quite often. It was a bit sad and scary. He eats plenty of vegetables and isn't overweight but still has meat three times a day and at least a bottle of wine. He is on a million types of medication but washes the pills down with wine, which is worrying, but he isn't about to stop.

Anyway, I don't leave him to babysit so I didn't get to the gym those two days, but I went yesterday and today with the kids in creche. Today was BodyPump, and when we got to the tricep track I learned that it was to be the same one as Monday -- the one I can't do any of. I didn't feel inclined to run from the room crying again, and didn't want to sit there waving my arms feebly for the whole track as I tried to approximate what we were supposed to do, so I took a radical approach. While everyone else did tricep dips and then stood lowering hand weights behind their heads, I lay on my step with my bar and did the moves I can do! There are essentially two moves; lowering the bar to your forehead, and lowering the bar to your waist. I did that over and over in time to the music, following the instructors shouts to "two and two", "three and one" etc. And it was fine. I used my lighter weights as I am used to only doing about half a track then struggling with the bits I can't do; today I did the whole track -- my way.

So what if I wasn't doing the same thing as everyone else in the crowded room? Why would they care, and why would I care if they did?

I had a bit of a wardrobe disaster in the afternoon, but not that kind! My jeans had worn through on the inner thigh seams (from my legs rubbing together) and I desperately needed new ones. Clothes shopping with kids is never fun, and it's still school holidays, so I decided the easiest thing would be to buy a pair exactly the same as my old ones. I tried them on in the shop and they seemed a bit unflatteringly snug, but the salesgirl assured me they stretch half a size with wear. She pinned up the legs (I am only 152 cm -- 5 foot -- so all my trousers get shortened) and sent them off to be tailored. And I came home and checked the old pair of jeans waiting to be thrown out. They are a size larger than the ones I bought today. Bugger.

The new ones may well stretch a bit with wear, but they will also shrink again every time I wash them. They are paid for and are, as we speak, being altered for my height; so I can't change them for a larger pair. I probably won't be able to sit comfortably in them, and they gave me a muffin top. I did hesitate over them at the time, but I was so sure they were the same as the ones I had at home...

I'm guessing I can't wear them until I lose a bit of weight. Yet another motivation. Pity it's not working. Still stuffing my face. Doesn't matter if there is no unhealthy food available; I'll have bread, cereal, cheese, whatever is there that is laden with calories. But I've also been having unhealthy food, especially spending school holidays with the kids. We saw a movie today. 'Nuff said.

After this weekend the school holidays will be over and time to get back into a regular routine. Work. Gym. Parties five weekends in a row.

My little boy turns five next month. How can he be nearly five?