HI All just a quick post… more later. Heading to the dr to get some advice re my latest osteoporosis scan which was not so good. I had to go off my meds a year ago as the one I was on was blacklisted – causing heart attacks! Boy you can’t win!! Was doing a great job of fixing up my bones! But my bone density has gone down a lot since then so we’ll see what he says. Can’t even go to my lovely dr friend/neighbour as he is having problems since he had his prostrate cancer op & is not doing so well so not working at present.

Talk more later. suejen XXXX

Almost missed your post, CG – girl, you are having WAY too much fun in the bathroom 😀 (I mean on the scales of course!). High five on dropping another kilo!! You may need extra fruit in your WTF headdress lest you blow away in a strong wind. I am tickled pink for you – how hard and long you have worked for this to happen. xxx

Hi all!
SJ, sorry to hear about your ongoing problems with osteoporosis. I really hope the injections do the trick, at least it’s something new to try and hopefully the research continues with better options coming on stream all the time. I hope your dr friend starts to feel better soon too. So, is it your birthday on Friday or am I completely mixed up?
CG, I don’t think the film would be for you so best to avoid it. My daughter, of course, is mad into films so the style and technical end of things were very interesting to her. OH, my two girls and I are going for a nice pub lunch today before my D goes back to the UK this evening. Yes, your losses are really impressive and you are leading the charge for the WTF reunion in true AD style!
PH, you really had a wonderful birthday and I’m so happy for you…..just the way it should be, of course!
Barb, glad to hear that all is well with you but you sure are one busy lady. Try to find some time to be kind to yourself as well xx My sister never married and has had mental health issues all her life, so we have been looking after her to varying degrees throughout her life. Another sister and I do most of the management of her care and filling the gaps when carers can’t be found but it has become too much for us as she needs more and more care now that she has dementia as well.
Jade, thanks for throwing St. Luke my way but I think we’re more at the St. Jude stage (patron saint of hopeless cases)! Hope you manage to crawl out from under the paper work and get to smell the roses soon. How are the ‘patients’?
It’s very windy and cold here today so I’m keeping the heat pack on my neck as much as possible and it’s doing the trick of keeping the discomfort at bay.
Big hi to Gypsy, Up, GG, AA, Bert, iannie and all the gang xx 😀❤️💐😘

Thanks CG, I was only joking about being a hopeless case……now that we have a plan for the ongoing care for my sister, there is an end in sight. I am glad that we soldiered on as long as we could, so I won’t have regrets when the day comes for her to go into a home. Just hoping that my neck can be sorted enough to let me continue with the ballroom dancing because my other sister and I just love it. I’m feeling positive on all fronts though, so don’t worry about me please. (Although, putting my chin up is not recommended!) Thank you for the love….I’m getting a warm feeling….or is that just the heat pack?! 😉😃💝

Gypsy, I’m not surprised you’ve been inundated with visitors…..who wouldn’t want to spend time with you and all those delicious fumes circling around! 😉 Yes, the film was very gory but lots of amazing wild scenery too….majestic country! Sleep well 😴💤

Wow, Jade! I’m so honoured that you chose to launch your emoji career by sending me lots of lovely sunny images 👏✊💪👊👌👍😃

Hi all. Looking like another hot day here today. Thought I’d catch up with you all before I go to the pool.
SueJen. close birthdays and both Aquarians .so has your birthday passed or still to come? Hope the injections work for your bone density. You must have to be very careful. Plaster is a real bummer.
Fit. Go careful with your neck dear girl and do NOT overdo it on the weekend… I have the same thing and am nursing mine along with the help of my special pillow and osteo. Hot packs are the ticket until you get it sorted. Have you checked the rest of your spine for the degeneration or is it just in your neck? You could decorate a neck brace with artificial fruit lollies and have a Carmen Miranda neck brace and supply of lollies while you are dancing🍌🍉🍐🍋🍒🍉🍌. Ha ha .on a serious note I hope that dancing is not ruled out as it is both good exercise and fun and special times with your sister. So great you have had all of your family together..special times especially now with your worries about neck and sister. Hugs from Daughters are awsome… 💕💕💕

CG. Wow..💐💐🎉just goes to show that this is long term and out bodies will shed the kilo’s when they are good and ready . You must be stoked.!! I am so lucky to have the rehab hydro pool just a 20 minute drive away as it is beautiful and warm all year round with lovely change rooms. And because we have been in private health insurance all of our lives I have lots of physio dollars to claim so get most of the classes for the year free. Actually when I come to think about it that is what I planned to happen when we were choosing somewhere to retire. Had to be close to the Baringa Rehab Centre so not really luck. Private health insurance not cheap though so not really free.

I’m on my second fast for the week today so hopefully it will be as easy as Monday. Usually find the second day harder for some reason.
Can imagine that it is cooler down where you are because when skyping tasmania yesterday everyone was in warm clothes and we had the air conditioner going due to the hot day. So have to get busy and make some little sleeping bags for Ruthie..

Gyps enjoy your visitors and socialising …not too much quality control🍹🍹🤓🤓

Jade. The wait is over….enjoy searching for the correct emojis, you will discover something each time you look. What fun….
.
Barb..remember to look after yourself as well. Enjoy some you time 🙅🙆💁🍸🍸💐💐💕

GG did not get to Kmart yesterday as I ran out of time. But will go soon. Thanks for the lovely call yesterday morning…great start to my day…💕💕💕

Well best get up and get ready for the pool.

PH, loving the idea of the Carmen Miranda neck brace! Ha, ha😀 I’m hoping the physio comes up with a strategy that manages my neck and allows me to get back to the dancing. I’m staying hopeful and positive! Enjoy spoiling Ruthie!
UP, that’s great news about having your flights booked for the WTF tour…..woohoo! I have three sisters, two are very close in age to me, the third is the one with dementia and is a good deal older. One sister lives very close to me and that is why we share the care of my oldest sister. We also do lots of things together like walking the dog, dancing and going for coffee……it keeps us sane! My other sister would love to be more involved but she has a stressful job with long hours and she lives an hour away. I have two brothers as well, a typical Irish family! 😉

HI All had a long post almost ready to go then the lady at Centrelink called my name & that was the end of that! Had to go prove that I’m me so they’ll pay my pension. Bit of a pain but has to be done.
PH my birthday is coming up on Saturday so I’m a Pisces. I’m having fun with the alarms on my phone. I have one each weekday at 7am to get up for the buses, then 2 others at 2.50pm & 2.55pm in case I’m likely to forget the time & miss the afternoon shift! So at the end of each day eg Monday I take off the 7am alarm & the 2.50 & 2.55 alarms. Been doing it each day for a bit of fun! Feels like retirement is closer every day doing it that way.
CG a B2B you really have the mindset happening right now don’t you. I’d thought about it until I had the centrelink app’t today. Do like to buy lunch if I have to drive out of town. Pretty warm here too…well it’s only 28 or so but the breeze is very hot.
Jade will tell you how I go with my Garmin when I get it on Saturday! Yes 10000 steps sure sounds a pile to me.
Wow Fit 6 of you – a very typical irish family. When’s your physio Fit?
Up so glad you got your flights booked AND got them cheap…even better!
Gee PH that Ruthie of yours is going to be one lucky little girl with all your sewing!
Jade/Fit etc no watching The Revenant for me either. Read an article about its gratuitous violence & it sounded pretty gross. OH even said he wouldn’t be the projectionist for the cinema with that one. One lady tried to swap with him & he said Sorry try one of the other blokes. Maybe they’re more macho types! I’m a sensitive artist!!! Each to his own I guess. He doesn’t even like the crime dramas on tv that I love.

Well just about time for the afternoon run so will finish up this lot. suejen XXXX

Hi all, Late aqain, but had to go to Ingham for banking and groceries. It was 40 degrees on the street so dodged into shops for aircon and had a little shopping spree. Not that I need more clothes (rolling eyes)but got some anyhow, and walking shoes and bag and then some more shoes, all sparkly, just sort’ve jumped out at me. So glad we are doing the Brazilian thing. I got BLING girls! Gunna look like this old tart from ley girls! We might havfta do a lap of King’s Cross So I can try me luck agin in the big city!

Harr, har ha!! Gad it so reminds me of my first trip to Sydney with girl friends when I was 20ish. It was the hot pants era and we were all done up in our little shorts and boots. Green as grass, fresh from the country and agog at all the sights. I had a tiny waist and long hair down to my bum (a bit like cousin ‘It’ from the Adams family) I was browsing for post cards at a street stand to skite to the folks back home. I smiled at everyone(with dimples that weren’t just fat creases then) when this really good looking bloke came up to me and said “Are you working?” … “Oh, no,” sez I, “I’m on holiday.” ….. so he takes his wallet out and flashes a couple of hundred bucks…. “will this convince you to go back to work,”, he sez. “I fancy you.”

Ahh, moments like that stay with you forever, don’t they? MY face must have been a picture of embarrassment! Never wore hot pants again. Now I look back 50 years and sometimes wish I’d taken the money! Instead or 30 years tied to the kitchen sink in between bedpans and bedlam! Oh well that’s my confession for the day.
SJ, Yay for retirement! It is just wonderful to have a pension arrive like clockwork and no guilt trip attached to it. You paid your taxes and this is what it’s all about. tho I Thank God I’m an Aussie, we are privileged to have the best country in the world, I reckon.

Annie cute emoticons! No stopping you now!

Fit, You any better? I watched the Revenant. Agree, great scenery, but raw and violent. A thought evoking literary experience. Not for the feint hearted. Wonder what the writer’s brain went through in the writing?

PH, Remind me to put your book on a stick and pack it closer to the time. Am a little light headed on account of the fumes around here.

I accidently left the tap open on my filter vat and slow dripped about 8 litres of high grade white lightning on the kitchen floor overnight. got up for a pee and sloshed into it. Mmm, I sed, “Oh, dear… ” Gecko’s drunk from the fumes keep dropping off the ceiling…. Oh, well, at least my floor is sterile. Best go boil some eggs.

CG, the Gawdmuther is happy as, after 2 fast days she has lost 2kilos and is back into the 78’s. We are on track here in the wilds. See you tomorrow all. am going to drool over my bling. xxGyps.

Hi all!
SJ, loving the story about turning your alarms off each day as you count down to final day……a brilliant way to savour every minute of it. 😄When I retired first I woke up at 7am every morning on automatic pilot and then just rolled over and went back to sleep….bliss! I still love Sunday evenings with no prep for school etc (sorry Jade!) My physio apt is tomorrow afternoon so I’ll let you know how I get on. Hope your pension is sorted and comes through without any holdups.
Jade, don’t let those stupid politicians get you down. 😩😤You can always move to here or Oz…..mind you, there are the same idiots everywhere! Minstrels are heavenly but deadly chocolate drops and are just too moreish!😋 So, major repairs to do, gotta get back to weighing in here on Friday and try to absorb some of CG’s amazing success!😁
PH, well done on another good fast day, I know you feel that the second day is harder but you never give up all the same……great AD spirit! Rest up and sleep well xx😀
Gyps, so you’re hoping to revive your, ahem, ‘career’ when you get to the big smoke! 😉 I can just see the headlines now: RAUCOUS GANG OF OAP’S ARRESTED ON SYDNEY CRUISE FOR INDECENT BEHAVIOUR! 😂😚😳🙀 Sounds like you’ve got the bling all sorted anyway and the hooch is fermenting nicely, so it’s all systems go!
CG, you’re definitely in the 5:2 zone now and very focussed……doing b2b without hardly noticing! 😇Wow! Hope you enjoyed a relaxing day and had a good night’s sleep 😴💤
I’m going to my French class today but will have to give the dancing a miss until I hear more from the physio…..fingers crossed that I can get back to it soon. Still waiting to hear if there will be any home help provided for my sister at the weekend. But I have set the wheels in motion to apply for respite which hopefully we can avail of over the next few months.
Best wishes to everyone else and hope you are keeping to your Aussie determination! WE CAN DO THIS! BRING IT ON!

I cant make it to the harbour cruise but would love to catch up with you all for the low key dinner on the Thursday or whatever you do. I am also free for Friday lunch. Please count me in on those things.

Been busy with work and meetings again this week but have been skimming the posts. Happy belated birthday PH. SJ you will love the garmin. I have a fitbit HR and find that 10000 steps for me is about 1.5hrs walk. It depends on your life but my work is basically sitting down so i have to get creative and walk around the building every so often and take a short walk as part of my 30 min lunch break. I normally have to walk an hour at night if i dont do a short walk in the morning. Gyps the hotpants story was a hoot. I had a similar proposal in Iran as i was walking through the markets and i was fully covered in full hijab. Not much to see at all..not even any hair showing. I was 26 and it was the days of the ayatolla and not a nice place to be.

If you girls get arrested on the friday night ill come and bail you out. If you end up in the cross nobody will look twice at a stack of women dressed as carmen miranda.

Anne

FD went well yesterday and ill do it all again tomorrow.

Oh Gyps you’re a force of nature. I can just imagine the headlines from this crew 😈 Odds are you won’t be too successful running from the cops if things get out of hand! Lol we don’t want any “long walk” to be a perp walk, ladies. Do be discreet with the odd sip off the old headdress ok?

Fit I know everyone has flaky pols but I can’t even imagine the likes of our lot in another country Why they even took a vote in the UK Parliament to keep our top rascal out of the country. i have to hope the election won’t sink too low. If it does you may have a new neighbor!

Oh heavens there is free food here at school today because judges are here to talk to students. I’m trying to hide in my office until it’s all scoffed — trying a FD because I was way too into the conversation hearts last night. Not nearly as good as minstrels but handy! Better go make an appearance. xx

too much to catch up on! Birthdays, dancing, doctors and cruises. Happy birthdays to the birthday girls. Feb/Mar are full of birthdays for us – 8 family/friends in past week, 2 next week and 4 mid march.

Today is a fast day for me (supposed to be yesterday but could not avoid a work lunch that was sprung on me), and we are preparing for a 4 day weekend on our boat. Will be a challenge as we are taking friends out who will want to eat, drink and be merry in the evenings. I am still undecided if I will have a few drinks or not, or if I will try to fast while away – at the moment it is an open book.

Hormones have caused my wieght to jump up 1.5kg the last 2 days – but know it is just fluid retention. Hopefully todays fast and lots of water will sort it out.

You girls could always just hide a bag of “fluid” in the middle of all the fruit and flowers, with a straw discretely placed……

Just wanted to check in with everyone and let you know I’m still alive and doing okay. It’s been a heck of couple weeks. Works been super crazy, my husbands car broke down and I got the flu! Aaahhh, but life goes on…..
On a good note, my pants are still falling off, even though I did gain some of my weight back. I’m okay with that but it seems my upper half is now oddly smaller than my bottom half. I think I kind of look like a candy apple with a stick coming out of both ends. Holy crap…… Wide load approaching… Everybody move over!
Talk about distorted body image…… Hopefully, my bottom will catch up soon…. But at least my pants are still failing off!
Lent started and after listening sister Angelica about the true meaning of lent … Besides giving up something….. I have also decided to work on lack of sympathy and patients with people who do the craziest things like cut me off in traffic,people stop and chat with each other while taking up the whole isle at the grocery store or customers who decide at 4:55pm when we close at 5pm to start their color selection. I could go on but I think you get the point.
Oh, I also gave up my sweet little pastries……
Well, at least my pants are falling off.
Have a great night and once I read through all your wonderful posts. I will add more
Cheers!