Good morning from Melbourne, it is a clear still morning with the light shining beautifully through trees.

Just a quick catch up as I am determined to get some work done and then will reward myself with another coffee with Klond. Yes, a treat.

Intesha I am thinking of your daughter on the plane. And sending you lots of good wishes in a steady stream.

Neil, so awful to hear of your fellow worker, I do hope she can recover well. It is a worry for those of us who live alone.

Lindsay, masterfully managed, that room upgrade. Congratulations for skipping out of the elections. I am skipping out of a lot of it, but fascinated by parts.

A terrible report out today on the state of the world, if only we could all put into power wiseheads who work to make everyone safe and included, understand the interconnectedness of everything in the world, and think of the generations ahead x 7. At least.

Gday, those fritters sound delicious. I’d be the same with the wontons, I have never successfully deep fried anything in my life. Ooh no, I did chips well once, but that’s it.

And Neil, I react to the unbaked cheesecakes the same way, have done since I first had a bite when I was a teenager. I only came to love cheesecake when I met baked ricotta ones.
I am glad Mrs Neil found that treasure trove of clothes. I bet it was weird to realise so many are now too big for you. Hooray for the ones that fit.

Oops, I stopped being quick. Thin, hoping you had a better sleep. LJoyce, that icecream cake sounds gorgeous.

Re difficulties posting, might it be that our thread is getting too long? I remember another long thread (Jojo’s?) had to finish off and start again to get things working properly. Hmm, what would we call a new thread if we had to make one?

Cali, sending you lots of good wishes that your despondent times are nearly over, everything comes in waves (says Cinque, to herself as much as to Cali).
Keep at it, and you will find the thing that makes it move. Be kind to yourself.

Anzac, happy Maxx cuddles.

Cheers all.

Morning Cinque – our posts crossed.

Lindsay, wine is my downfall too. We are trying to be good during the week and just having some on the weekends but it doesn’t always work. Your holiday sounds fascinating and I’m impressed that you can order meals in Chinese. I’m trying to learn French and struggling without having to take into consideration the fact that the writing is in symbols rather than our alphabet.

Cali, I’m sorry you are feeling down and I hope some bright sunshine soon helps you to feel happier. I too have to control my NFD’s better and I’m proud to say I suggested a bring-our-own food to a lunch with an old colleague tomorrow and she was delighted. We can sit outside in the nice sunshine and have our healthy food and a nice chat. I echo Lindsay’s comment that you made it into the 50 kilo range with an enormous amount of willpower. We can do this

Cinque and Klondi, enjoy your catch up! Where did you see that report on the state of the world Cinque? I would be interested to read it

I am feeling heaps better today, thanks for asking  A bit tired as Maxx needed the loo at 3.00am (unusual for him) and then I couldn’t get back to sleep for a while

LJ, your Mexican feast sounds so yummy! I love tacos so long as there isn’t too much cheese (dairy intolerant). I’m with you on avocado – meh – no taste, awful texture and lots of calories!

Rosy, LJ and Lindsay – I am definitely an ‘all or nothing’ person. If I open a packet of crackers I have to eat the whole thing before I’m satisfied. So I very rarely buy them. Same with any snack food like chips, nuts, biscuits etc. I find it hard to stop at one glass of wine too

Sorry about your wontons G’day but my personal experience is that the best way to learn how to cook new dishes was to make mistakes. Ask long-suffering hubby!

Thin, it’s not like you to wake up hungry during the night is it? I wonder why? But an 800g loss when you are already so light is incredible. Well done you!

CalifD, I love ceviche! And chicken mole. But I never eat tacos, fajitas or any of the Tex Mex stuff such as comes in an El Paso box. I think I’ve mentioned here before that we learned not to bother with ‘Mexican’ restaurants in Australia after we were served beetroot in a taco! My house in SD was close to the border and there was a little hole in the wall at the end of my street serving the best ever carne asada burritos. I have fond memories of fish tacos and tamales in Ensenada. That was all before 5:2.

I forgot to add I made dessert last night which is very unusual for me. Chopped green apples stewed in a little water, popped into individual ramekins, topped with sourdough breadcrumbs, under the griller until the breadcrumbs were crispy….yummo

Anzac, we have a nearby restaurant that does dumplings and potstickers (and various Chinese dishes) that use a sauce like the one in your link. I’m not sure if it includes the coriander, but the other flavors are all there: salty, sour, hot and sweet. It is the best sauce! I always get their steamed dumplings which are big. I can eat about 5 and feel full.

Thank you to everyone for all the kind words about getting my NFD’s back on track. I think being accountable here is a big thing. When I lost to begin with, being accountable here was a huge part of it. I want to get back into the 59’s rather than the 61’s and 62’s. My skinny clothes still fit, but they’re getting tighter. My knees are starting to hurt again. That completely went away when my weight was down. I also feel better when I’m not eating a lot of sugar, white rice and flour.

I wonder if the length of the thread is what’s causing the lock out problems? I was locked out overnight several weeks ago and had to email JJ. It may be that they just have strengthened the anti-spam filters. I think it happened when I went back to edit several times on a single post. On the other hand, starting a new thread would be simple. The name should have Southern Hemispherites or Southern Hemisphere in it though, in case people who haven’t posted in a long time come back looking for the thread.

Hi everyone, its fast day and 20 past 5 I’ve not eaten a thing up to now, went to the Court house today and put some in jail and one out on bail, met up with a OT to look at my van, then security arrived on the scene and started chatting with her while isat there sheesh, anyway finally got home after four so no point having lunch lol

After you all were telling me that my bracelet reduction was a good weight loss i asked my daughter to measure my waist as she dressed me this morning 2 and 1/2inches i have lost, her face was priceless im proving to them i can do it lol so thats the only measurement i asked her to take

My daughters are taking me to high tea at one of the fancy resorts we have here … of course its a fast day at least they warned me, so Saturday for this weeks fast day nice mothers day treat from my girls im sure my son will phone me as well hope you all have a good mothers day too

Hi all,

6.20pm Tues 7th Cashmere, NZ

Great reading all the posts, feel a little overwhelmed responding to them all individually, but some I remember, Neil, sorry to hear about your colleague, I hope she recovers soon, you must all be gutted, sounds like a pretty tight team? Beijing and your travels sound wonderful Lindsay, and the food, just lovely. With you with the wine Anzac, one of my downfalls but OH and I do have a small glass each most nights and I can now stop at just the one, even surprised myself there. Not keen on dumplings of any sort or from any country, not a pastry fan at all apart from small amounts of filo amd usually savoury and baked. Do quite enjoy soft Tacos but generally find Mexican food a bit stodgy, avo’s I love and would often eat a half one with the stone removed and filled with balsamic vinegar and freshly ground black pepper with a coupe of strawberries on the side for a middday meal. Sadly no longer as an extortionate price!

At last finally under 74….hit 73.7 this morning so feling great finally being out of the 74’s, seem to have been there so long. Heho, what will be! No rush, just enjoying everyday as it comes. Bit of an upheavel with the move on the weekend, kinda thought we were travelling light but time to rethink that one, haha!! Will be so pleased to get settled into the van in the spring, knowing that that will be the last move for a while and we are both so pleased to be able to do a Neil and cull some clothes and find some more new (old) ones hidden away, already found a load in the extra suitcase we have with us that will do nicely on our trip, great feeling though.

Enjoy the reat of your Tuesday everyone,

Turn

6.50pm Tuesday

Hi all.

It sure feels good to be back – having fun atm fasting for 18 hours and having 2 meals between ~ 12md and 6pm. Started Sunday morning – big headache last night, after work, probably from sugar lack! Trying to drink much more water.

For the first time in many years, I felt hunger pangs in my stomach after fasting 18 hours! I’ve decided to try F800 for 2 weeks and see how it goes. So far down 0.7kg since Sunday.

Managed 740cals today. Just realised Jarrah Hot Chocolate 99% fat free, if made up with 11gm powder in 200ml hot water tastes really good – didn’t miss the milk! only 46 cals

Enjoying reading all your posts.

Enjoy whatever you are getting up to and bye for now xx

Turn, good job with your weight loss. Have you been house sitting one after the other location? Does all your stuff go with you or do you have things in storage? Or have I completely misunderstood?

CalifD, you can do it. Keep posting and reporting in.

Arel, good luck with Fast800.

Neil good luck with the weigh in.

Trying to read all the posts but finding it a bit hard to keep up sometimes. I made the Hairy Bikers’ Thai Chicken Curry tonight. So delicious and simple. Tomorrow’s a FD. So easy. All three things are out of the freezer and looking white.

Good morning, sunny and 21 in Sydney today.

Crazy, are you a judge as well as an artist? If not, what did you mean about putting some in jail and another on bail? Only answer if it’s not too much of a personal question. Your high tea with your daughters will be a lovely treat, enjoy.

great loss Neil, you sound disappointed but honestly that really is good. I hope you get some help at work soon as you can’t continue to do three people’s job for long.

Had a good FD yesterday, the scales are down 600g which I am very happy about.

Fabbo Turn, under 74! I can’t wait until there is a 7 in front of my weight but a fair way to go yet. Your lifestyle sounds amazing and I’m very envious.

Hi Arel, great to hear from you and it sounds like you are doing very well. Carry on and downwards!

Betsy we are so enjoying having Maxx on the couch with him and he seems to like it too. After the first time he now comes and nudges us as if to ask ‘can I come up?’ which is so sweet. My little (?) angel (??) – well, when he’s asleep anyway.

I hope you can get back into the 59’s soon Cali; I’m sure you can.

Have a great day everyone 🙂

Hi all,

Weds 8th May 10am NZ

Thin, No you haven’t misunderstood, when we left the Lodge for good just before Xmas, we put most of our belongings into storage in a town not far from where we were living in Central Otago, we then came up to Christchurch to stay with friends. After a week or so we decided to move on from the friends situation and look for somewhere to rent, however, knowing we had a flight out of the country in early June, we only required accommodation for 5 approx months and needed it fully furnished!!! Not really an easy ask, but because Methven is a ski resort/farming town we found a ‘walk-in/walk-out’ two bed apartment that was just perfect. We still had the trailer with us so loaded up most of the extra ‘stuff’ we had with us and took it back down into storage, a six hour drive each way!!! What we had left with us, clothes – far too many, shoes – far too many, kitchen knives, bits & pieces – maybe not necessary, coffee machine – absolute essential, box of toiletries – do we really need all those? Paperwork/files – supposed to be doing some work! bedding – do like some home comforts, boxes of wine – are we really alchies? So needless to say, once we loaded up the car, we had a lot more than I thought we had, but just too far to go back to Central to deposit another lot into storage until we go back at the end of the month. The house sitting job came up just at the right time and runs until 31st May, so on June 1st we head back down to Central with a loaded car and put everything into storage apart from what we are taking to Europe with us, which won’t be much!!! We spend the long weekend with friends before heading back up to catch a flight out to Singapore on Weds 5th! In hindsight it probably would have been easier for us to have stayed around Central for the past few months but we wanted to live ‘somewhere else’ and see a bit more of the country, plus, you never now what the future holds when you make these decisions!! The lady owner of this house has been really good, and has let us unload our car into her garage with the stuff we aren’t using for the time being, and the food we have with us will nearly all be gone too by the time we leave.

Sorry if that sounds a bit of a ramble but no quick way to explain it all!!!! House sitting is a great way to live, learn and get around in life, but do it very lightly and you will reap the rewards. We are currently sitting a small chihuahua called Daisy and two gorgeous completely black cats called Twopence and Titi as well as the house, so no bother, Daisy is great fun and very energetic for a small dog.

Going to cook up a salmon hash with a poached egg for lunch then off for a walk over the hill to the Sign of the Kiwi cafe for a coffee and back, should wear out Daisy a bit.

Enjoy your Weds,
Turn

Good Morning everyone

I hope you can get that work situation sorted out today Neil. You are doing great with your weight loss even in the difficult times. Well done.

Intesha, still thinking of you. I’m glad your daughter is with you and I will be thinking of you especially tomorrow. Sending you a big hug.

Last night was the second night in a row of no sleep and I am over it. I’m so tired today and feeling like I could cry at the drop of a hat. I rarely do actually cry but it is just so frustrating. Monday night I went to bed still quite hungry and so I blamed that for my lack of sleep but last night there is nothing to blame. It was not a FD yesterday and I ate a nice dinner but I was still hungry after dinner. I ate some vita wheats with vegemite and that made me feel better and so I did not go to bed hungry.
Today is a FD and I admit that I am not feeling strong about doing this today. I have tried to prepare myself and have bought some almond milk to make lots of tea at work and I have also bought a salad with me. I have miso paste in the fridge as well. I know it is psychological thing for me today so I will be fighting it with my big girl boots on. After a great FD monday and a controlled day yesterday the scales have started moving and I hope to see the 65s (again) tomorrow. It’s been a while.

I hope you all have a lovely day. I will be checking in, probably about a million times, lol. Take care all x

Hi Lindsay, OH and I are over the mystery virus, thanks for asking. Am still tired as, like Quacka, haven’t had a good sleep for the last two nights (not as bad as Quacka as at least I got some sleep!) but nothing like the drained exhaustion I felt on the weekend. Thankfully. Those roses must be gorgeous and I look forward to your pics when you come home. Hearing about your holiday is making me a bit more excited about ours – only 30 weeks to go (not that I’m counting….much)

Quacka, so sorry you have had such a lousy sleep for the last two nights. I hope you have a good solid sleep tonight and can hopefully catch up on the weekend.

My friend just cancelled lunch today as she has to prepare for a workshop so hooray, I get to go for my lunch time walk instead. As much as I was looking forward to seeing her as she is a lovely, lovely person and always helps me to find work. We are both working for the same bank again, just in different areas and in different buildings. I’m fortunate enough to be right on Darling Harbour so my walks are mostly along the foreshore, despite it being crowded. For that reason I try to take an early lunch and walk before the crowds really swell. Sometimes I walk back up past my last building to Hyde Park as I love walking around there too.

Turn, where in Europe are you going? We are going in early December for 7 weeks and going to Lisbon, Morocco (not Europe, Africa of course), London, Paris (for Christmas), Venice, Florence (NYE in Tuscany), Rome and then a week in the Seychelles to thaw out.

Cinque, our posts crossed – good morning! I’m envious of your rain as we need some desperately. No sign of any rain in the 7 day forecast unfortunately. Glad you had a lovely catch-up with Klondi. I’ve started a food diary and calorie tracker again and I find it really helps. I tried using Calorie King but as I often eat similarly during the week it was too onerous to keep typing in the same thing each day. A spreadsheet is better as (a) you can copy/paste and (b) I put in simple formulas to total up daily/weekly calories. I know 5:2 isn’t supposed to be about a daily diet mind-set but I just want a bit of acceleration to get a big blast of excitement and enthusiasm. Plus on weekends I don’t track at all and just try to be restrained whilst enjoying any food/drink I fancy.

Hi Intesha, thinking about you and I hope having your daughter with you has helped with your grief. Will be sending positive and healing thoughts tomorrow.

YES YOU CAN Quacka YES YOU CAN. 🙂

Quacka, hoping the rest of your FD went alright for you? I’m almost finished with mine. Lots of white things, almond & coconut milk, cauliflower soup, root and barley soup, maybe half a frozen banana and a tsp cottage cheese later! And they say white food is unhealthy. Oh well, it works for me.

Lindsay, yes, I usually drop 700g after a FD, gain it back over the 3 non-FDs. On some weird weeks, my weight stays exactly the same day and night. So I haven’t dropped 800g per se, just hanging around 58g. Pleased you won’t be away until October – although you’re doing a very good job of staying in touch.

Anzac, great job. You’re on your way to the ‘no excuses’ weight loss for your jacket purchase and holiday. Glad you’re feeling better too. Lovely photo of Maxx.

Klond and Cinque – jealous!

CalifD, good job! Dinner sounds delicious. Bridge went OK, thanks. In that we didn’t come last! Close enough mind you, 10 out of 12, but we are still thrilled that we can ‘hold our own’ as my partner says in that group.

Neil, great result.

Turn, thanks for the explanation. I’m pleased I had been paying attention! Such an enviable position to be in, I can hardly wait to have no keys again one day! Is the storage locker costing a lot? I’ve been downsizing and downsizing in recent times – even down to photographs which I never thought I’d part with. We still have too much but I’m pleased to have a huge volume of ‘stuff’ gone. Especially now that there are these freebie sites springing up all over Perth so no-one expects to pay for anything. I’m happy to give certain things away but not everything I own!

Betsy, cats don’t have trainers, they have trainees.
Cooper doesn’t shed, but I have several fleece throws on the sofas. They’re easy to wash, and save some of the wear and tear. We had sofa covers on our old sofas, but now with the reclining ones there are no covers that fit. I have a couple twin sized fleece blankets that I throw over them. Cooper’s feet are like little wet mops after he goes outside. We try and dry them off when he comes in out of the rain in winter, but it’s hard to get them dry. I always said I wouldn’t be one of those people who put covers on furniture as they got older. But dogs can be so messy an the sofas are a medium gray/beige color which will probably show the dirt after a while.

I lost 300 grams on my CD yesterday. This is the first time in a long time that my weight went down on a NFD following a FD. The no eating after 8pm rule is a good one. In fact, I may program a message on Alexa to say every night at 8pm, “The kitchen is now closed.”

Morning all from a freezing, cold Perth. Up with the sparrows again. Well done to all the people who have dropped weight this week. On Saturday, I am hoping to be back to my pre Easter weight. I’m fasting much better this week.

What do you think of the new royal baby name? Archie Harrison ??? I thought they would name him Charles because he was so kind in stepping in for Meghan to walk her down the aisle when her own dad wouldn’t.

Re avocados, I love them too! I think they add luxury and interest to a salad.

Re wine /alcohol, I love it too, don’t consider it a downfall as I have lost 22 kg without giving it up.

Re exercise, I was doing an hour on my ex bike daily in the Xmas hols before I fractured my wrist . When I did that I stopped exercise completely to try to keep cool with that dreadful fibreglass cast on.

I started exercising on these recent holidays again but now working long , active days again, waking early, I am too tired. Formal exercise has made little difference to my weight loss journey. I accept it something I need to do for good health. I will keep trying but waking at 4.30 and doing lots of quick walking incidentally before returning home around 5/5.30 pm is enough for me to manage right now.

Anzac, “nice black coffee” = oxymoron 🙂

Intesha , thinking of you today.

Good morning,
Cold and grey AGAIN but a good day for wearing my nice winter clothes, and more rain later.
Hope some gets up to you soon Anzac!

Thursday, and its after nine already!

Intesha I have another candle lit helping me think of you and sending lots of good wishes for this precious funeral day.

Turnabout, what a lovely day you had planned yesterday, best wishes to you and the pets.

Quacka, I am hoping you managed to sleep last night. It is so frustrating, as no sleep just makes everything harder. Including getting through a fast day. Did you manage it?

Lindsay I just love hearing about your days, I am holidaying vicariously.

Anzac, your calorie counting app does sound good, but I am not a calorie counter. I did a bit of work when I started 5:2 to make sure my fast days were under 500, but apart from that I go by general sensible eating principles that do match very well with my clothes waist getting tighter or looser.
Good luck getting that avalanche cleared up!

I’ll put my little accountability para at the bottom of the post as I know it isn’t relevant for anyone else.

Cali, I am lucky to have a brilliant little cafe nearby, making and selling bags of frozen dumplings. So I add frozen dumplings to my pan and I keep the heat going so they continue to steam for the ten minutes it takes to heat them right through and evaporate the water, and then a few more minutes because I love them golden and a bit crunchy on the bottom. The bamboo lid is from a steamer and works so well at letting the steam out slowly.

Sending good wishes to your special part of the world, and congratulations on such an excellent CD yesterday.

Haha Thin, you have the best white food!
Thanks also for describing your cycle of weight on and off, it is good data for me to have in my head.

Betsy, Miso and Wilbur sound like kindred spirits.
I’ve got a sheepskin on the chair Miso usually sleeps on, but then forget to quickly take it off when a visitor comes and shriek as they sit down on it!

Hope the scales give a great number this morning, you deserve it.

Neil, that 3 – 4 pm munchy time is my difficult time too. I was reading something yesterday that recommended having protein and low GI foods (eg wholegrains) for lunch to help get through that tricky time, but I think I was doing that already. I’m going to try a specific healthy snack and nothing else.

Congratulations on getting that exercise in.

Rosy Posy, good luck with those long tiring days. Hooray for being just about at your pre Easter weight. Easter and the cooling down of the weather seems to knock us badly. I’m going to try and remember that for next year.

Cheers all

Accountabilty Corner, I had a good fast day yesterday.
Today I have had toast with 2 eggs, a little eggplant and pepper relish, and lots of baby rocket, for breakfast.
Chicken (adobo with coconut milk), brown rice (the last of that lot I cooked) and warrigal greens for lunch.
A vegetable and cheese muffin for my afternoon snack.
Bean and vegetable stew with toasted seed topping, baked pumpkin and corned beef for dinner, followed by a hot chocolate.

Eep! Nearly 10am!

Good morning all.

Intesha, just a note to let you know you are in my thoughts today.

Hi all

Firstly I’m a fan of avocado and luckily, I am not fussed about alcohol. I do like fortified and dessert wines but they are naturally special occasion drinks and a small quantity satisfies.

Intesha. I was thinking of you today and I hope that all went as well as it could. Having your daughter with you must have been a comfort for you and your dad. Sending hugs.

Turn. Great news that you have broken through that glass floor. I weigh in Friday and I hope to join you on the down escalator. Having to move again certainly gives you a chance to evaluate your ‘baggage’. Are you planning to live in your van for a long time, that will certainly pare your possessions down.

Neil. You are certainly carrying a load at the moment and making sure you are caring about yourself is fantastic. When this stressful time is over, you will be so pleased you hung in there. I hope your work situation resolves itself soon and your colleagues both recover. Well done on getting on that bike and reaping the benefits.

Rosy. I really sympathise with your insomnia. My grandson has a problem and he takes melatonin and it has helped him enormously.

Quacka. Love those big girl boots. Sounds like you are having a blip too and lack of sleep makes us all cranky. Glad to hear that you made it through of your FD and sleep has improved.

Lindsay. It’s funny but I have never associated China with roses. They sound beautiful. So glad you are having such a wonderful holiday, you can tell the bees when you get home.

Anzac A healthy lunch and a walk. Win win. You trip sounds wonderful. I was in Morocco 50 years ago and it is so exotic. My stay was a little bit spoilt by very bad toothache and I wasn’t game to deal with it there, but that didn’t stop me having a wonderful time. Bobby is a couch, lap and bed dog. He’s only small so he fits anywhere. Oh dear, Maxx, he is really testing you. Can OH be the one who gets up so that you can sleep and handle that workload.

Calif. hope you have got over the grumps. That conversation in the taxi must have been fun. The stereotype is that the French hate their language being mangled and won’t even try to understand you. I love the idea of having an electronic boss. You might need to program a five minute warning so you can rush out for the last minute snack. I have to say Bobby is allowed on the bed but we prefer him to stay near our feet, doesn’t always happen.

Betsy. Your on the down escalator too. You are doing so well with following TRE. There are so many tools in our kitbag and it’s great we can just use the appropriate one when we need it. No, cats are definitely the boss that’s why I prefer dogs. Our furniture is leather so we only have to pick up hair off the floor.

Arelkade. Glad you are letting us know how you are getting on. That’s a great loss and I must check out that hot chocolate as that is my go to treat.

Gday. You are certainly doing your new kitchen proud. Hope the fasting does the trick and you start getting the results you want. My secret to replying to nearly everyone is to read the posts on my phone and type on my iPad. Saves scrolling and losing my finely crafted (not) writing.

Crazy. You must have enjoyed your daughter’s reaction to your new waist measurement. I imagine your face probably looked the same. It is lovely that your family is giving you such a nice treat for Mother’s Day, and you can adjust your FD to suit. It’s great isn’t it.

Thin. You have been downsizing for so long are you sure someone is not sneaking stuff in. I am with you, if something is worth having then a fair price is appropriate. You are really maintaining so well, you are an inspiration to the rest of us.

Well, Cinque and I had a nice get together and then we both added to our wardrobe at the op shop. I can’t believe I have a selection of active wear. Weigh in tomorrow and with a bit of luck I will be doing a happy dance because I will have reached my second mini goal, 20% off my original weight. I expected it to take two years as it did with WW, and this way is free. I no longer refer to my ultimate goal of 65kg as wishful thinking. With my new jogging hobby, I should be on maintenance by the time I come back from Queensland. Speaking of Queensland, Anzac, Quacka, Lindsay and anybody else north of me, I am heading in your direction. I have a fairly flexible itinerary and would love to meet any or all of you. Cinque can vouch that I am harmless and Bobby could have a play date with Maxx. I will put my email address on my profile and you can let me know if you are interested. Greetings to anybody I have missed, happy eating to all.

Good morning all

Brrrr, it’s really getting cold in the mornings and at night. Today is forecast to be 21 but the weather report says the wind-chill will make it feel like 13! No rain in sight unfortunately but glad you are getting bucketloads down in Melbourne. Both of our states have had the driest start to a year ever

My FD didn’t end well, long story, so I’m having a super controlled day today. Fasting until lunch when I will have my normal FD small salad then have a normal meal tonight. Hubby is making his yummy slow-cooked lamb shanks so I’ll have one with some veges and no potato. I have some mandarins for snacks.

Intesha, I hope yesterday went as well as could be expected. My thoughts are with you and hope you are enjoying some time with your daughter before she flies home tomorrow. I hope your Dad is ok too

Maxx woke me up at 1.40am but I ignored him until he started trying to dig a hole in the carpet. Brand new carpet at that. Yes, he knows how to get our attention! So I uncharacteristically yelled ‘stop it!’ and turned the light on. He sat there on the carpet at the end of the bed and glared at me like I was some two-headed monster. I wasn’t giving an inch I just stared back. He huffed and took himself back to his bed.

Klondie, the reason it’s me he is waking up is because I’m sleeping in the spare room upstairs at the moment because (a) hubby has been snoring as he has a bit of a cold and (b) I’m having one of my times where I am finding it hard to sleep (even without Maxx disturbing me). So Maxx is sleeping in the loungeroom – on his bed, not the couch – so I’m the closest. Tonight the three of us will sleep downstairs so it will be interesting to see what he does. What a shame about your toothache in Morocco but glad you still were able to enjoy it. Fingers crossed you reach your mini-goal today – I’m sure you will. Bobby is so cute and I sometimes wish we had a smaller dog

Besty, thanks for the idea about asking the trainer on Sunday. I also posted the problem on the ‘My Labrador Friends’ forum where I am an active member. It’s a similar forum to this one in that it is small (about 100 members I think) and the people on there have become cyber friends, just like here. Also just like here there are some very wise and experienced Labrador owners/trainers and we wouldn’t have Maxx if it wasn’t for them. When we got him we were not prepared for the manic, needle-toothed, insane chewing monster. We thought we were doing something terribly wrong and were just about to give him back to the breeder when I found the forum. There were others on there with brand-new puppies going through the EXACT same thing. The wise owls assured us it would pass and it did, of course. We would have a perfectly behaved dog if hubby would have trained Maxx in the way they encouraged but, well, he knew best and he was wrong. Enough said. Anyway, they reckon that Maxx has enjoyed the much more comfort of the couch and is probably asking if he can come up on the bed. 40+ kilos? Not a chance poor little buddy. I’ll dig out another blanket and put it on his bed so he has two and see if that helps.

Your cats sound adorable Betsy. I love cats but when my Oscar passed away in 2011 I lost my best buddy of 17 years and just can’t bear to get another. He was a Himalayan Persian and shed like crazy. Just like Maxx. Anyway, we have our hands full with the other fur-child.

Turn, your trip sounds awesome! How long are you going for again? I went to Europe when I was 19 (so a VERY long time ago) and did a 3 week Contiki trip, spent some time in Manchester with my friends family and then a week in Corfu. I don’t remember much at all. I worked for Dresdner Bank here in Sydney (long gone now) for 17 years and towards the end I was in charge of the Operations area. I did about 10 business trips to Germany (Frankfurt) and sometimes also went to London…but other than that I’ve not been to Europe. Hubby lived in England for a year and has been to Spain but that’s it. We can’t wait! I was allowed to keep my frequent flyer points from the business trips and had about 500,000 when I was made redundant in 2001 so that’s where our pot started. The only flights we are paying for during our trip are between Lisbon and Marrakesh and back. The rest are either first class (!) or business class which will make the trip even more lovely. Our points are now pretty much depleted but we won’t have another big trip for a few years so plenty of time to save some up again. Friends and colleagues used to think we were strange because of our points-collecting mania but now they see it pays off. We have to divert a bit here and there in order to get the rewards flights but that’s ok. E.g. we are flying to Auckland to start our trip as it is difficult to get reward flights out of Sydney. Our first day is Sydney-Auckland-Dubai-Lisbon!

Quacka, so proud that you got through that long afternoon and had a successful FD. I hang my head in shame but today is another day.

Cinque, I love your accountability paragraph. I find it inspiring.

Hi to everyone else. Sorry this post has been mainly about animals and travel – two of my favourite things (along with reading and posting on this forum….food and cooking…and walking in the sunshine…and reading …..and lots of other things of course)

Have a great day!

Lots of posts to read today. Today was a successful FD for me. After 7:30 pm and 20 calories to go. 1.5kg lost since Monday and hoping for a good number tomorrow morning. Of course it’s probably all water weight, but I’ll take it. It’s actually good to get back to eating mindfully on NFD’s after being so out of control with my eating the past couple of months. FD’s were the only thing that saved me from putting on a really lot of weight.

Anzac, your trip sounds like it will be so much fun. And having several first class flights will make the flying seem less tedious.

Klondi, do you know how many mg of melatonin your grandson takes? DH has been having problems waking up during the night and wants to try melatonin again but there are so many different strengths. He tried 3mg some time ago and that didn’t do much. But it’s apparently not good to overdo it either. I stay up a lot later than he does, but once I’m asleep I usually sleep pretty soundly, although I do wake up early. We each got a weighted blanket and that seems to help me quite a bit. He said it’s better, but he still wakes up.
I bet your lunch and trip to the op shop with Cinque was fun. I was going to go to the one here today but time got away from me. Maybe tomorrow.

Betsy, happy to hear that you got the rain that I sent over. 😁 Both of our areas seem to have big problems with droughts so rain is always welcome.

Turn, maybe your hike along the crater rim trail will work out better tomorrow. I’d love to see some pictures if you care to post them here.

Thin, we have a freebie site called freecycle in California. We just post items and it’s first come, first serve. We’ve gotten rid of some old furniture that wasn’t in perfect condition, like an old sofa and a couple of chairs that needed repair. They weren’t really things that were suitable for selling. But it’s amazing what people are interested taking. Usually items are gone in hours of posting.