It is relief day here, a lovely 24c forecast in among a week of 30 somethings.

So lovely to read everyone’s posts.

Quacka, great quote and cheers for your philosophy. I hope yesterday was a lovely fast day.

Anzac, so glad Maxx is back to his happy, healthy self.

Betsy, I hope you got to your tapescripts… after you cleaned your kitchen cupboards of course 😉

Rosy Posy, glad you could take a carer’s day. You could almost take a carer’s year! Bets wishes to Mr Posy. And one more week of the cast! woot!

Maxi, the thing I keep in mind with the fast800 compared to 500/600 is that my delight in 5:2 was that Dr Mosley argued for a whole suite of benefits.
It is a traditional and natural way of eating (in that regular food wasn’t an option for most of human history, and some kind of fasting has been part of normal eating patterns in most societies) and weight loss is one of its benefits. When I started it, I expected to do it for the rest of my life. I saw weight loss as a wonderful side benefit of eating for my health.

But fast800 is all about losing weight (for health, ofcourse). The initial 800 calories a day is so people get the buzz of losing weight quickly, then moving to 5:2 with 800 calories on fast days is so it is most sustainable, and then moving to a Mediterranean Diet which is a good healthy diet that doesn’t require restricted eating days.

It seems most people took on 5:2 as a weight loss technique and fast800 is a probably a better way for most people to lose weight. But I am so glad I came in with the original 5:2.

Re goals, not that I can think of. I had a trunk of clothes I wanted to fit into, and opshopping for new, smaller clothes gave me my rewards, as well as seeing my shape change. I found the idea of slowly losing weight fine. I needed more rewards for just getting through a fast day, and breakfast the next morning was my favourite reward (still is).

Rewards are a great idea though, and many people use them to help themselves along. A delicious alcohol drink is a great reward!

Hi Klondi, Congratulations on reaching that first goal! https://media.giphy.com/media/26tOZ42Mg6pbTUPHW/giphy.gif
Yes, a lost post makes you a fully fledged member of this thread!
So glad you enjoyed the mung bean soup!
Really, really hope you start enjoying housework. haha.
My health has stopped getting worse, after my busy week, and is starting to get better, so here is my email and let’s see if we can organise a coffee in the next couple of weeks. joyyamdaisy@ gmail.com (added the space to avoid a hyperlink). My name is Joy 🙂

Lovely stories of generations and wonderful tools handed down.

Cali, good luck cutting out added sugar. I hope you find it easier than you fear. There are just SO MANY delicious things to eat that have no added sugar, you will have a lovely diet.

Penguin, hope your computer doesn’t spam this one! And good luck re the frost, although hearing about the scarily warm weather in the UK, I don’t know if it would be good or bad.

Intesha, how are you going? Is it early March you have your next great adventure?

Best wishes to everyone.

noon, Tuesday, Adelaide

Hi everyone. I had a busy day Sunday with 11 to dinner Sunday night, so the afternoon was spent cooking. Yesterday I was driving all over the city and hills taking either myself or my aunt to appointments. I was out for 9 hours and absolutely shattered when I got home.
Today is a day at home (thank goodness!!), where I’ll try to get some laundry done and have a quiet day.

Thankyou to whoever suggested the house walking – I think it was Betsy – although I know Cali has also done that too. I’m going to try that this afternoon as it’s too hot to venture outside. I usually go to the local shopping centre and walk there, but I do have a long hallway that will allow me to do about 25m in a straight line without obstacles.

A comment on the Fast800. I wouldn’t use 800cal FDs if I was only doing 2 FDs a week, as I know full well that my weight would go up. The only reason I’m doing them now is because I’m doing them every day for about 10 days. The hot weather ends here Saturday and so does my fast800 experiment. Then I return to my normal 5:2 with FDs below 500 (usually 350-450cals). I also have family coming to a birthday morning tea on Sunday and I plan to eat, especially as I’ll be doing an 800cal day on my actual birthday.

Have a good day everyone.

Hi everyone, still lurking. Thank you Cinque for remembering. Yes off to Hong Kong next week 6/3.

Had my lunch onboard Celebrity Solstice. Lots of drama getting onboard as it was moored in the harbour and they were using tenders to ferry passengers and everything else out to it plus it was a terribly rainy and cold day but when we finally got there the lunch was beautiful and the ship amazing.

Few hiccups weight wise but FD today at 68.8 only 300gms more than last Tuesday but still 1.6 more than precruise weight so with 4 FD’s until next Wednesday hoping I can get that off although there will be lots of walking 🚶‍♀️ in Hong Kong which I’m hoping will balance all the dumplings and egg tarts I will be consuming 🤪.

Quacka, Zig Ziglar was a great motivational speaker about 30 years ago. I saw him speak once when he came to Australia he really got the brain processes going with his enthusiasm.

Anzac everything crossed for you with the job.

My motivational saying which is pinned on my wall.

“Remember where you have been and know where you are going. Life is not a race but a journey to be savoured each step of the way” this has been on my wall since 2002.

Enjoy your day

Quacka he was a US motivational speaker who also said ‘People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily’. (thank you Wikapedia)
How are you all going? I’m lurking too, Intesha, and posting when I can. Have a wonderful trip to HK. What fun. We are off to Bali on Thursday – may it roll on. I’m at work today, and a couple of FDs before we leave. Work, which is usually quite satisfying, is a struggle today. I think it is me, although I’ve had two very difficult consultations this morning.
It’s under 30 today and some rain. Yesterday was 29.8, the first day in 46 where the temp has fallen below 30. Unseasonal, even in humid old Brisbane. I went into the garden yesterday and saw I’d lost a mature camellia. I was really sad – I remember as a new homeowner buying it with my Dad who was a keen gardener ….it must have been in the very early 80s because we had little DD with us. Dad is long gone, but still very missed, and I did love seeing the camellia coming into bud each year, as a nod to him.
Great about the job Anzac….hopefully now you don’t have to tackle any more of those awful interviews. I felt for you, with each one.
LJ good luck with fast800. It didn’t work for me at all, but I am sure it is great for others, and I know you will manage it well. I found the strictness I try to adhere to on FD500s seemed to dissipate when I knew I had another 300 calories to play with. Back to naked 5:2 for me.
Cinque, what a wonderful, apt name for you. I had an Aunt Joy – a wonderful, sunny woman whom we adored.
OK next consultation, so I’d better get my cheery face. What do they say? Fake it til you make it?’
(Oh dear I do sound glum – which I’m not. Not quite on top of things yet, but on the way).
Enjoy the rest of your day all.

Oh LJ, ice-cream is my downfall too. So good, it deserves its own food group. Thanks for the holiday good wishes. We need some away time, my OH and me. I’ll post while I’m away. I’ve not been writing much lately – life has been somewhat crowded – so I’m looking forward to the ambling, oozling way of life that Bali always delivers.
Good wishes all.

Thanks everyone on the advice on fast800. I was thinking perhaps I could do one day of 500 for health benefits and one day of 800 for continued weight loss until I reached my goal….

I did my loop twice today. Once in the morning and once this evening. My evening run was 11:30 so a full minute faster than when I began last Thursday. I’m still finding it pretty hard.

The indoor walking worked really well today. I did approx 3km divided into 2 sessions. I’m sure I was walking faster than I normally manage on the streets as I had no obstacles to avoid, uneven paving to watch out for, or cars to give way to. I also did another 100 metres sideways using a thera-band wrapped around my legs, just above the knees – that’s an abductor exercise that my exercise physiologist wants me to do a couple of times a week. That 100m was much harder than the 3km of walking!
I can see the indoor walking being a real boon on wet days.

A strange day. This afternoon I mowed my grass wearing a T Shirt – in February! Apparently we have just had the highest Feb temp ever, but the Met Office says it will cool down during the week, although not to historical norms.

Maxi, after my last post I looked at your profile – should have done that first, I could not have been further from you and still in Germany. There were travel restrictions on the military when I was there so I didn’t see much of the DDR. I was in East Berlin a few times, but not free to roam. Apart from that all I saw was the view from the autobahn between checkpoints Alpha and Bravo (Helmstedt and Berlin). When the two parts of the country were coming together they resurfaced the autobahn so we drove the country roads, which was much more interesting. The real interest at that time was the first opportunity to go to Potsdam and see the old palaces..

Good morning, lovely day in Sydney…..27 and sunny

Fairly successful FD yesterday, about 700 calories. I know that’s high for a lot of you but until I lose some more weight it is working for me and when I try much lower I fail. The scales settled on 86.0 this morning and no amount of maneuvering the scales around the bathroom floor would push them into the 85’s. ha ha. Definitely after tomorrows FD. I know I have a long way to go but it is still a long way from nearly tippling triple figures

I am so happy about your holiday to Bali Lindsay; it really sounds like you need it. I assume you are a health professional from your description of your work and I’m sure that is a very hard job a lot of the time. I haven’t been to Indonesia which is a shame as I spent four years studying the language at school. Can’t remember a word now of course!

Neil downwards and downwards! Fantastic!

You’ve certainly had (and are having) an interesting life Penguin. I would have loved to be in Germany when the wall came down.

What a great idea BetsyLee and LJ to walk around the house! I no longer have any excuses to not do my walking. I also love walking around Hyde Park at lunch time but lately have been too busy. That is an excuse if I’ve ever heard one so no more.

Maxi, naughty hubby for stealing your beer! If mine stole my wine there would be fur and feathers flying!

Hubby just called me in hysterics as Maxx was having a teenage tantrum and barking and throwing his toys around because he wanted to be played with NOW. RIGHT NOW! They had a big walk this morning so the fur-child is over tired. Just like a toddler. I do wish I didn’t have to work so I could go walking with them every day; but there are bills to pay and kibble to buy so I must keep on soldiering on. No disrespect there Penguin

Have a great day

Woohoo, that beer is mine! Weighed myself a day early to check if I’m getting closer to my end of month goal and it turns out I’ve reached it a day early. 57.5 kg and 23.8 % body fat and visceral fat is 4. It took me a whole months to get the visceral fat down from 5 to 4 though so getting to 2 will take another couple of months then I guess.
Good to know that I ‘earned’ that beer however I will only drink it when I feel like it and that can be in another week or so. Probably when it’s hot, it has cooled down a little right now, thank goodness. But this drought here in SEQ is just dreadful. I want rain for 3 weeks straight please!

Great progress on your running Neil. I hope it will get easier for you soon.

Penguin, my family lived in Koeln at the Rhein before world war II however ended up in Magdeburg after the war. When the wall was built in 1961, nobody was allowed to see their relatives anymore. It was hard on my grandma. When the wall came eventually down, it was a Thursday. I went to bed very early that evening and missed the announcement. When I went to work Friday morning, hardly anybody turned up because everybody went to the border (Magdeburg was very close to the former border) to see if it’s true and they could get to Braunscheig on the other side of the border. It worked. So I ‘missed ‘the initial opening of the border but I went in November for a day trip to take a look. When I returned I saw the world with different eyes. I was 25 when the wall came down.

LJoyce I’m doing that side walking with a thera band as well. My gym instructor calls it ‘crab walk’. It’s hard but very effective. I love the thera band because it helps with mobility, provides resistance and we can do the exercise anywhere. We also use it in Pilates class sometimes.

Oh Lindsay, sorry you lost your Camellia. I’m a keen gardener and have lost some plants in this awful drought but losing such a special plant that reminds you of a loved one must be very hard. Thinking of you <3

Hi Annelt, so awful to hear that fast days are bringing on migraines. I come from a family of migraine sufferers, but I am the luckiest of them, ie I have them the least, and I am relieved to say that fast days haven’t set them off.
My suggestion is to try salty broths. They will make sure you don’t get even slightly dehydrated, and that you are getting lots of electrolytes. Miso soup or other brothy soups are great to have on hand. I hope this is worth a try.
Keen to hear what insights others might have. Good luck.

Thankyou I shall try that! Ive already lost 2 kilos-I know that can be fluids at the beginning but it sure is encouraging!

2:15pm Wens, another hot day in Adelaide

Annelt, I suffer from migraines, but not triggered by FDs (for me it’s neck tension and red wine). I think Anzac’s suggested solution should work. If low blood sugar is your trigger, then eating small amounts every 2-3 hours and avoiding simple sugars that are quickly absorbed seems like the best solution. It will take some forward planning to make your FD calories stretch across a couple of meals and small snacks, but incorporating lots of veg with small amounts of protein should help.

Anzac, I’m sure 700cal is fine – hadn’t we already worked out that your TDEE is a bit high for 500cal FDs to be reasonable? If it works and it’s sustainable then don’t stress over it.
Sounds like you need a naughty time-out corner for Maxx!!

Quacka, It takes time to adjust to being smaller and not having to buy things just because they’re the only thing that fits! You do get used to having choices and being smaller. That said, I don’t think it matters what we weigh, it’s hard to figure out what size we are because different clothing manufacturers seem to cut differently. It can also very depending on the style of the garment. I have everything from 8-16 in my wardrobe and they all fit properly. (The 8s only fit because they are either skirts or wide-legged summer pants with elasticised waists.)
Good for you buying multiple colours of a garment you love. So many times I’ve mourned the end of favourite garment that was just getting too tatty to keep wearing – I always wished I’d bought a second one and stashed it away. I can rarely do that at op-shops but I will when I buy from clothing retailers.

Maxi, congrats on the weight loss and that change to visceral fat levels – so important for good health. Sound’s like you’ve earned that bear as long as you’ve hidden it from your OH!
I hope you get rain soon in SE Qld, and plenty of it. My cousin’s daughter lives on a farm near Mungindi and the hand feeding of their stock continues to be a huge stress for them. We’ve all been hoping for rain for far too long.

Neil, you are zipping along with your weight loss and exercise. I hope you enjoy that recumbent bike when you can afford to buy it. (Put it at the top of your birthday pressie list!) I’m sure Fiji will be a lovely compensation for any delay in getting one.

I’m not sure what my neighbours have done, but I’ve barely heard a peep out of their puppy in the last couple of days. It’s been blissful to wake up when I choose, rather than when their dog decides to start whining loudly near my bedroom window.

My fast800 days are still feeling mostly easy, so I’m fairly sure I’ll make it Saturday without any trouble. Already feel a bit leaner and could even describe myself as feeling lithe. It’s a feeling I enjoy and want to hang on to it.

Good luck with your food challenges today everyone.

FD, CD then FD today – whew! Has anyone ever had a problem with feeling light-headed and “off” a couple of hours after eating their first meal on a FD? It’s not my blood pressure, maybe sugar??? If I have one or two mint leaves, the feeling lifts fairly quickly. I’m generally eating between midday and 8 p.m. as well.

Anzac65, chuckled at Maxx’s hissy fit; you probably would have coped better with it than your OH.

Quacka, interesting clothing story. I spent 2 hours today sorting through my summer wardrobe, trying just about everything on. Amazing what no longer fits, so I really think I’ve actually gone down a clothing size now, and I’ve about 20 items of clothing to go to op shops. And no, I’m not keeping them “in case”. If they’re too big, out they go – then I can’t regain the weight, or a new wardrobe will be needed. And sizes!!!! Like LJoyce, I still have clothes from 10 to 16, depending on the cut, the brand, the store…..

neilithicman – amazingly impressed with your weight loss. Go, Neil, go!

Maxibaerchen, how is visceral fat measured? Is that via a DEXA scan?

Anzac65, definitely NO excuse not to do your walking! I try to do 20-30 minutes housewalking in the morning (or sometimes at the local shopping mall), then the rest of the day is bonus. It’s comfortable, private, and better yet, weather-controlled.:)

Good morning, start of the hot run here. I’ve just started complaining, the morning has been lovely, but it is heating up already. Melbourne 8:58am

Maxi, what a lovely extension of a treat, to have your reward beer sitting in the fridge until the time is perfect for it.

Quacka, how lovely to have a serendipitous B2B. And what fun to have to go back for a smaller sized dress, and now to have two!

LJoyce, great news about the puppy, and about feeling lithe.

Sympathies Neil, Burger King can leave us feeling pretty yuck. You will enjoy having better food today.

Betsy, what an awful feeling. Maybe it is sugar related, you will have to do some experiments.
Hooray for taking bags of clothes to the op shop. Gone for good!

Penguin, my only hope is that since the consequences of our climate change are becoming serious, our governments’ responses to it might too. We are due for the hottest start of Autumn (we start tomorrow) on record.

I’ve got a lot to do this morning, including my planner, Klondi. And off to pick up Miss 2 at 11. Lots of water play today, I think.

Best wishes all, I am just about to have my delicious morning-after-fast-day breakfast.

Have a great trip to Bali, Lindsay!

Hello cyber friends, arrived home on the midnight horror this morning – handing the Asian travel baton over to you, Lindsay. Have a fabulous trip.

All went swimmingly with my new crown, easy on the mouth, easy on the wallet. In between dental appointments, we pottered around Bangkok, enjoyed massages, cruised up and down the river, explored new areas and felt comfortable re-visiting parts that we’ve come to know quite well. Our room had a spectacular view of the Chao Phraya River and all its goings-on, day and night.

I’m happy to say that I’ve returned at exactly the same weight as I left. That’s with one 24 hour fast on the outbound travel day which I found quite challenging; no fasting while in Thailand and a vague effort at a CD on the trip home since my travel scales told me that, at under 60kgs, I had nothing to prove.

We did quite a bit of walking and I used the hotel gym, being the only guest to do so over a 5 day period. Bored and wasting time in there, I calculated that I would need to keep going for over 9 hours to equal the same calorie deficit as a fast day (OK, I admit that also tells you something about the intensity of my workout!). No wonder I never lost weight in all those decades of gym memberships.

No account from me would be complete without a good whinge about food waste. I’m completely cured of breakfast buffets. I admit that it was a bit of a challenge the first couple of days but, by day three of eight in a row, I was more or less over its allure helped greatly by the disgraceful manners of certain guests. I had a jam croissant fall off a man’s piled high platter of food down my leg and land on my foot without his even realising it had gone missing. A woman poked her finger under the stream of coffee filling my cup to determine its temperature. And we witnessed huge platefuls of food left on tables, covered by small saucers in some vain attempt to hide the shameful waste while the perpetrators returned for yet more enormous platefuls of food. Some chose to eat AT the buffet which was nothing short of disgusting and serving as a good appetite suppressant.

I know some will defend this behaviour by saying it’s a cultural thing. My response to that is that with the privilege of travel comes responsibility. There’s nearly always a sign in a hotel bathroom asking patrons to use towels, air-con., lights and water sparingly to help the planet. Why not then a sign above the buffet area inviting guests to take all they can eat but to eat all they take? In Chinese. DD suggests any food waste be weighed at the table and the guest charged by weight. That’s for the planet too.

Yes, I’m like a reformed smoker when it comes to over-eating. Smug and judgmental. You’d expect nothing less from me! But I’ve always been this way about waste, long before 5:2.

I’ve had a brief look at the posts.

Anzac, a new job is on the cards, congratulations.

Penguin, cool memories of your dad and grandpa and tools built to last and pass on to gen 4!

Rewards: sorry, I don’t know who raised this but we have discussed it many times on this thread before. Rewards don’t have to come in the form of food and alcohol, but of course they can if that’s what motivates you. New clothes, a massage, concert, travel, ticket to a favourite event could be some calorie-free reward ideas.

CalifD, I can’t believe you’re going to be 70 this year. You could be 60.

Rosy, looking forward to our coffee date next week.

Hope everyone’s fit and well.

Thin, welcome back! We were posting at the same time. Happy to hear that your crowns went well and that you managed to maintain your weight on the trip. The manners of some at breakfast buffet sounds disgusting. I like DD suggestion of charging by the amount of food wasted.

Your suggestion of the Netflix show, “The Killing” was another winner. We’ve binge watched seasons 1 and 2 already and have started on season 3. You’re right about all the twists and turns. Love the actors.

We bought the digital copy of “Bohemian Rhapsody” on Amazon a couple weeks ago (you probably read that earlier on this thread) and I’ve watched it twice so far and have been listening to the soundtrack almost non-stop since. So happy to see that Rami Malek won all the awards for best actor.

Thank you for the compliment on the aging. I’m starting to feel almost 70. I’m hoping it’s the overcast and rainy weather and we get some warm sunny days soon!

9pm Thursday. I am sooo over this latest heatwave and still have 3 days to go of 41 and 42 deg temps.

Positive note – the builders started yesterday morning. Negative note – inside the house looks like a bombs gone off….literally.

Walls have been knocked down, external sliding and single doors taken out, holes in ceilings through to the roofspace, carpets gone and bare floorboards…and I could go on and on. External cladding has been put on where external doors were removed but we have to wait for the plasterer to fit the internal gyprock. The house is like a furnace with no insulation and no gyprock on some of the external walls along with holes in the ceiling. And dust….with the exception of the 2 bedrooms we just had new carpet laid which we are able to close off, the entire rest of the house is covered with dust, dirt and various other bits of building material. One more week and it will all be done and we can paint and get the rest of the flooring laid. Coping with another week of this will be challenging indeed.

Pleased with a 5.9 lb weight loss this month – better than January.

Thinatlast, great to have you back, and good that the dental work was successful. And I agree, breakfast buffets are there to be avoided!

Maxibaerchen, my scales show everything except body age and visceral fat. I may have to upgrade.

GDayfromSA, pity you with a heatwave and renos going on at the same time. And by next week when they’re done, the weather will be cooler again. Wouldn’t you know!!! Anyway, hope it all goes smoothly.

penguin, sounds like you’ll be travelling – enjoy!!! Where will you be going?

CalifDreamer, yep, enjoy the housewalking and often prefer it to the shopping mall. I don’t walk much outside as I’ve already had several skin cancers removed, courtesy of “English” skin, many childhood beach visits and no sunscreen in those days. Ah well. I take Vitamin D, and am happier in a temperature controlled environment.

LJoyce, well done in keeping to an F800 day on your birthday – happy birthday!, and I hope you’re (nearly) as strong for the weekend celebration.

Onwards and downwards everyone!

5.30am Friday. Have been awake for hours and I know why. Because of the renos it’s not possible to use the kitchen at the moment so OH suggested we go to the pub for tea last night. He also suggested we have an alcoholic beverage to celebrate to commencement of the internal renos. Mmm…..Ok…a couple with our meal wont hurt….so I thought.

OH had 2 pints of beer and I had 2 glasses of red. The first sip tasted a little odd after being alcohol free for a few weeks. The second glass I struggled to finish and by the time I did finish it I felt bloated, extremely lethargic and had a major hot flush, so much that my dress was wet with persperation. I stood directly in front of one of the pubs wall air conditioners for 10 mins until it subsided.

When we got home I had a slight headache and I rarely if ever have headaches. My sleep was extremely restless and I had hot and cold flushes all night. OH said he really didn’t enjoy his beer either and also felt extremely bloated.

I take this to be a valuable lesson (Or experiment) on the effects of alcohol consumption on my body. I’ve been sleeping reasonably well for the last week, waking up feeling quite refreshed and this morning I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.

And lastly, I’ve had gradual weight loss every day for the last 2 weeks, with another 1kg lost in the last 7 days. Weight this morning is .6 kg higher than yesterday. Grrrr.

This has left me in no doubt whatsoever that I will now give up alcohol for good. OH feels the same way. Here’s cheers to soda with a squeeze of lemon or lime

Good morning everyone, 9am, hot.
A lovely time with the littlie yesterday, but too hot.

Happy birthday LJoyce, a bit belated, sorry. But it is stretching to the weekend, how lovely.
https://www.crestwoodflowers.net/gifs/index-flowers.jpg
All the best wishes for a particularly good year ahead.
What an absolutely beautiful eggplant. What special thing will you make with it?

Thin, welcome home. And congratulations on the scales being just the same.

Maxi, hooray for op shops.

Gday! I don’t think I would survive today at your place. Sending good wishes and hoping everything goes without a hitch.
An interesting and awful alcohol experience, but at least it makes your decision all the easier to stick to in future.

Penguin, enjoy that holiday.
Fingers crossed that precious Gulf Stream can maintain itself.

Betsy, yes, it is inside weather! I’m nicking out for milk (I need some for my coffee) and then not leaving the house til the heat wave is over.

Sending best wishes to everyone

12:30pm Friday, Adelaide

I was up early to do the grocery shopping. I’m not planning to go out again today as it’s far too hot for me. Autumn can’t arrive soon enough for me! I’m happy to donate some heat to Cali & Penguin if they need it.

Penguin, that’s good news about being able to get to your holiday home easily regardless of how much of a mess they make of brexit. It seems to me that it can’t be anything but a shemozzle at this point. Whatever the outcome is I suspect it will make few people happy.

Betsy & Cinque, thank you for the birthday wishes. Those spring blooms were lovely Cinque – exactly type of informal arrangement I like.

Betsy, that’s a wonderful weight loss for February, congratulations.

Cinque, I agree about staying home out of the heat. Unfortunately I have to bake tomorrow for Sunday morning, but the air-conditioning helps a lot and I shouldn’t need the oven on for more than an hour.

GDSA, hope the current renos proceed at a faster rate than the gym did.

Rosy, most of our weather systems come east from WA, unfortunately they often pick up a few extra degrees as they cross the nullarbor. As you said, thank goodness it’s not humid too, that is a bessing. I tend to fall into a bit of a stationery puddle when it’s hot and humid.

Cali, just be grateful you only sometimes feel 70. There are days I feel 90 – they are also the days I shuffle along like a 90 year old too! Thankfully they are rare and now that my hip pain has calmed down hopefully they won’t happen again soon.

I had a long awaited financial boon from my birthday. I have now finally reached preservation age for superannuation. Because I retired early, up until now I’ve been paying marginal income tax rates on my super pension rather than the very low or nil rates that slightly older retirees get. Reaching preservation age reduces my tax bill so I get paid more pension every fortnight. (Basically it means I no longer have to pay income tax on the contributions and earnings that the super fund has already paid tax on.) It’s a very welcome change.

I’m on my penultimate day of fast800. This morning I actually felt ready to stop, so I think I’ll be glad to end this tomorrow. I’m just hoping I don’t go overboard on Sunday. I will actually weight myself Sunday morning to see where my weight ends up.

Have a good day everyone.
I hope you can manage to stay out of the weather if it’s unpleasant.

Hello hello friends, lovely day again in Sydney – sunny and about 27

Welcome back Thin! I missed you greatly. So glad you had a nice time, your dental work was successful and you came home the same weight…that is awesome

Tada…..I have an 85 in front of my weight finally!! A couple of hundred more grams and I will be closer to 70 than 90. Crikey.

Penguin, you make me laugh. Of course it is the right of every dog to sit on your knee but you wouldn’t want our 47 kilo monster doing it. Believe me. He trod on my foot earlier and I have a bruise! That said, he has already lost half a kilo on his new diet so we are getting that right at least. And yes, we wonder ourselves who is training who. This morning on his walk he was an angel….then OH had to go and borrow a Foxtel remote from a friend who lives around the corner (yes Maxx ate another one) and they have an older black lab. Apparently Maxx was a nut and jumped all over everyone and upset their dog to the point that he growled at him. Sigh

Hope you are all ok in Melbourne and South Australia LJ, Gday, Cinque, BetsyLee and anyone else. That heat is so draining. Especially with reno’s going on Gday…ugh.

LJ HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Maxx is clapping his paws in joy for you https://imgur.com/vcKf7wm)
What great news that you are paying less tax now. I get cranky at every pay slip when I see how much tax I pay and I have never received one red cent from the government because I am always employed, don’t have children and am in good health.

Rosy, I too am not a fan of South East Asia. We have done a few trips and hated Thailand (sorry Thin), The Phillipines and Malaysia but really loved Hanoi in Vietnam (we didn’t go anywhere else) and also loved Laos.

Cali, I can’t believe you are turning 70 soon. You ‘sound’ so much younger and are active so it’s just a number. We received our Bohemian Rhapsody DVD in the mail today and I can’t wait to watch it! Hopefully tonight if OH is in the mood for a movie. He is doing physical work today and it is a bit hot so he might not have the mental capacity. He is currently turning an unused piece of land at the side of our house into an outdoor courtyard with a large bath! I don’t know if you can tell much from this photo, but on the left there is a sliding door that leads into our new downstairs bedroom. So it will be a very nice ‘parents’ retreat (from fur-child) and a big selling point when we finally retire one day. There is a lovely huge rock at the far end and he has built the walls for privacy from our neighbours. So we won’t need swimwear to have a bath! Ha ha. I’ve taken the photo from our upstairs balcony so it’s a bit sideways but hopefully it makes sense
https://imgur.com/gxKn72Z

OK, back to work. At least I’m at home today which is lovely. Enjoy the rest of your day and thanks everyone for the good wishes about the job. I don’t know if I have it for sure but the latest email confirmed my daily rate was ok and asked when my last day was at my current job. I emailed back asking her to call me to discuss further but I think she is just too busy.

Morning all.
Welcome home Thin – I have taken the travel baton and will now run with it! Terrible departure. DD had a medical procedure the day before we left – though it was meant to be routine it left her in agony. We took the 5 year old to school, and the little one to my DIL, but we ended up rushing to the airport and spending night one wide awake and wishing we’d never come away. I rang this morning and she is better, thank goodness.
I am sorry you don’t like South East Asia Anzac and Rosy. Each to her own, and I guess some places can be a bit daunting, but I love the chaos, and particularly the people. It can sometimes seem like certain cultures aren’t mannerly, but I guess if you have to compete with 1.4 billion others, personal space isn’t much of an issue.

Ah Thin, the trigger topic of breakfast buffets. I have such a long list of things I dislike that I am sure I can see Cinque raising her eyebrows, horrified by my intolerance. (Tolerance is one of the many qualities that shine through your posts, dear cinque).How about: People who are under-dressed (I count men in vests/singlets and women/girls in short-short-short revealing clothes or swimwear). People who talk loudly, very loudly, on mobile phones. Eating standing at the buffet (agree with Thin – a strong yuk). Those overladen plates. Where I am at the moment is a bit up-market and boutiquey, if there is such a word, so there’s less overeating, it seems, but we will move down to a big 4 star hotel in legian after we’ve been in Ubud (no breakfast booked there), and we will again be horrified by the plates dripping with food. They have smaller plates there to curb the over-indulgence, but the stacks just go higher. My OH has a robust appetite, but I have never seen him come back with a plate that doesn’t have a healthy amount of space on it. He often goes back two or three times, but knows when to stop. The other thing that I find interesting is how people go to othr countries for the cultural experience (I suppose) but then line up at the egg stations and fill their plates with sausages, bacon etc etc without even trying the local food. Even in my glory days (ie larger) I was never much interested in that whole buffet thing. This morning’s breakfast was a chick pea curry and a vegetable samosa. delicious.

great anzac, that the job seems to be settled now. Love what you are doing to the outdoor garden. Bathing sans swimmers is such a treat, especially as you head to the 70s…congratulations on breaking the 85 barrier. Lovely to see the numbers head south.

Gday very interested to read about your alcohol experience. We gave up for 3 months, for OH’s health (gout) and now a G & T is about all I have too. I used to love red wine and was looking forward to some on the flight, but found I couldn’t drink it.

Penguin I’m reading enviously about your twice yearly trips to Madeira. How wonderful, to be able to just pop on a flight, when the price is right. Travel from Australia requires hours in the air to get anywhere – even to Bali is 5.5 hours from Brisbane (although this time we flew to Sydney and came up on Qantas, so even longer).

LJ that aubergine is gorgeous…you really have a way in the garden. Sure you weren’t a farmer in another life?

Betsy, Cali, thanks for the commiserations about the camellia. It is nice that you understood how I felt about it. Yes Cali, I think I will plant another when I get home. I have a bed of them under a huge jacaranda tree, so they compete for space, but are beautiful when they are all in flower.
LJ hurrah for birthdays that deliver good financial outcomes. Happy belated birthday.