A quick good morning before I head off.

I’m collecting my friend and heading into the hills today. We are going to walk, meander through op shops and have lunch at a cafe in Aldgate. It’s going to be hot here today, but it’s always easier to take in the hills where there are so many shade trees.

If you are fasting, hope you have an easy one.

Cinque, your hair looks lovely and your granddaughters look so different from the last picture I saw. They’ve grown so much. What pretty flowered headbands! The drawing/cartoon for the downed firefighters was so touching. All of the firefighters have such a strong bond that it has a devastating effect on them all. Aussie firefighters helped fight fires in California in past years. The fires are so terrifying.

LJ, I have a Vivofit 2 fitness tracker but I had one of the first Fitbit models prior to that. When you begin walking the trackers don’t record the first few steps but after about 5 or 6 steps it begins to count and goes back and counts the first steps as well. If you don’t walk at least that many steps, it ignores them. It also doesn’t always count your steps if your Fitbit hand is on the shopping trolly. I usually walk with only my other hand on the trolly. The trackers like a steady number of steps, not stopping and starting. Crazy, if you start it like a run it would probably also count steps when you are paused. Doing the transfers from your chair to the bed must have increased your heart rate to the level of climbing stairs. They ought to make a fitness tracker specifically for people who spend a lot of time in wheelchairs. Certainly your arm strength would contribute to your fitness and so would the speed at which you travel. Unless you’re going downhill. 😁
LJ, I have to renew my expired passport or get a Real ID which requires the same paperwork if I want to fly, even domestically when the new laws take effect later this year. I hate going through all the paperwork and will put it off as long as possible. I hope yours gets sorted soon, before your trip. It will be great to meet you in person. The guest room is ready.

Anzac, good luck on the job interview. It would be so nice if you got that job since it’s also a bank, but hopefully less chaotic than the one you are with now. When will you find out?

Thin, glad all of those pub nights and sampling different foods hasn’t caused a weight gain. Deciding to stop coloring your hair doesn’t have to be a permanent decision. If you don’t like it, you could always go back to coloring it again. I have mine highlighted and lowlighted with the foil every 3 months or so. Now that it seems to be coming in white it’s hard to see the roots when it grows out so I can go even longer. I’ve thought about letting it go gray or white or whatever color it is, but I’m not there yet either.

Neil, it sounds like you’re figuring out your maintenance calories. With all of your exercise you should have an easy time of it. You’ve done an amazing job of losing.

Lindsay, Rosy is definitely trying to break Maxx’s record for household items destroyed as a form of entertainment, especially now that a Maxx is growing out of puppyhood. 😁 I had to laugh at the exploding dog bed. Those things should carry a warning. 😆

I’ve been debating on a Mediterranean Cookbook on Amazon. I have so many cookbooks, but this one looks like a good one for NFD’s. Cooking for myself is easy, I could eat the same things week after week, but OH doesn’t like the same things all the time. And a variety of foods is healthier anyway.

Have a good day everyone.

Penguin, that is a whole lot of weight to drop in 2 days, that’s brilliant. Hope you enjoy the Dunedin railway station. Apparently it’s the second most photographed building in Australasia behind the Sydney Opera house.

Califdreamer, yes, I think the key is to stick close to my BMR on days I don’t exercise much, boost the calories a lot on day’s I’m hitting the exercise, and throw in my Monday fast day. I’ll keep tracking my food for the next few weeks and see how I go.

Crazy, great to hear from you again, I have to send you a pic of your painting up on our wall. I don’t use a fit bit, I just create routes on map my ride. If anyone else uses that app you can look me up.

I hope you had a good fast Anzac and a great walk LJoyce.

Good evening all.

It was a rather hot day here today and will be worse tomorrow. I had a nice day in the hills. I parked the car near out lunch venue, then we walked half-way to the next town to visit a favourite op shop. We had a lovely walk along a footpath nestled under huge shade trees. Considering the heat of the day it was great to be so shaded from it. We walked back and checked out another op shop before having lunch, which was yummy. I drove back to the area my friend lives and we visited a couple more op shops on the way. Both of us had some luck. I came home with 2 blouses and a pair of purple pants! I also got al my steps done for the day despite the heat so it was a win all round.

My lunch was called a “green green bowl”. Not surprisingly it consisted of all things vego and green – avocado, raw zucchini ribbons, snow pea shoots, rocket, baby spinach, grilled asparagus and pistachios. I also added the optional grilled haloumi to my order. I’ve eaten the same meal there several times before and still love it. It is also the only thing on the menu that has a hope of fitting into my low carb 800 cal days. My friend had a brioche bun filled with grilled pork belly and aioli – which is typical of the other menu options.

Penguin, congrats on the weight loss.

Crazy, thanks for the fitbit advice.
I have a list of exercises on the fitbit that I can select and start, pause or stop. My fitbit can only hold 5 options but I chose those from the available list that I was likely to use. I have walking as an option so I think I’ll use that when pushing a trolley around. I think it will equate ok as even though I’m going slow and stopping I’m also pushing a heavy object along. I’ll try that next time and see how many steps it adds.

Cali, a Mediterranean Cookbook might be useful as it is the type of eating we are meant to be doing most of the time.
I’m hoping my passport application will be in by the end of February. I can submit it electronically as soon as I receive the new birth certificate. I am really looking forward to the holiday. I’m going to a travel expo this Sunday and another in about 2 weeks and will gather more information before deciding what particular things to include – especially for the Canadian part of the trip as I have to pre-book all of that. I am still thinking that I’m going to have to piece together a series of short stays and wilderness lodges to get what I want – apart from the rocky mountains, most guided tours just don’t concentrate on my priorities. I’m hoping to get the tours and flights booked by the end of March. Once I have flight dates we can make plans for my time with you.
It’s been so long since I went on a holiday (about 25 years) that it doesn’t seem real yet.

Have a good evening all.

Betsy, it doesn’t seem a whole year since you were enjoying the tennis and telling us about it.

LJ, you’re going to visit CalifD? Wow. That’s fun. I seem to recall that wanting to take holidays was one of the reasons for your move so, hurray, you’re making it happen. I’ve missed so much on here that I don’t know whether you’re just going to California or other locations too. Will you and CalifD be doing a FD together? CalifD, what’s this about the Real ID? Anything I need to know about?

Cinque, OH once bought me a book entitled, ‘The History of English’. I don’t recall the author(s) but it sounded a lot like that podcast you and LJ were discussing but, when I had a peek at the podcast, I couldn’t tell if there was a connection. Nice photo of you and the little grandies.

Anzac, I’m not feeling all that slender to be honest. I’m still under 60kg so all is well in the grand scheme of things. I’ve now gained back most of that weight I lost last year without trying when we were selling the house, etc. I’m managing with one FD per week when two would be better. How did your first FD in a while go for you? It didn’t sound as though you’d gained much weight on your big trip without fasting for 2 months. I hope you get a great job without any stress.

Penguin, I have that problem here in Spain – in the supermarket, we haven’t even opened our mouths before the check-out person asks in English whether we’d like a bag. Do we look so English? I’m not wearing a handkerchief knotted over my head. I know quite a lot of Spanish but, by the time I’ve formed the sentence in my head, the moment has passed and the person is comfortably practicing their English on me…….

Those words looks interesting. DD tells me she’s flying to Norway for £8. I think there may be a train fare to London involved though. She said Icelandic was a lovely language to listen to. Mildly annoying that she’s now going to countries that I haven’t visited.

Penguin, I have a friend in Perth with hair like that of your wife. She’s had a white streak since age 18.

Thin. Posts crossed. £8 to Norway? I was looking at flights this afternoon and £230 return was the best I found. I have to try harder. The only time the locals have not guessed that we are English was a trip to the Bayerischer Wald. In those days they saw very few outsiders and because we spoke German they assumed we were Dutch. After all, everyone knows the English are too superior or idle to learn anyone else’s language. I have confused myself and got lost in Belgium and Holland. In Belgium because they speak three different languages and name the towns differently according to language, and in Holland for assuming that a sign for Tuin Centrum would take me to the town centre. It took me a while to realise it means garden centre. .

Good morning,
I woke up early and hungry, but I am extending my fast a little bit by writing a post first!

Ha, Penguin I am ashamed to say that I am terrible at languages, but ooh this one seems quite recognisable. Ha en fin dag. I hope you can find that 8 pound ticket to Norway.
A nice two day fast done and dusted with lovely results. Woot.

Anzac, I hope your fast day felt terrific and that you are having a lovely morning after fast day.

Thankyou for those kind words, and oh dear yes, don’t we suffer from being so fortunate to have food around all the time, and so many emotions.
And with that extra meal I ate, I just couldn’t get my head around not doing something I had planned to, especially because I have been working so hard to plan good meals ahead. I need to factor in some flexibility.

Penz, I’ve been thinking of you in Canberra too with smoke and that worrying fire licking at the outskirts. I hope today isn’t too hard.

LJoyce, what a lovely green meal! And what a treat of a day, especially considering it was so hot. (We’ve got it today and tomorrow, coming down from the north with that hot north wind). Your trip abroad is coming together beautifully.

Crazy, congratulations on those half inches lost, keep trucking.

Cali thankyou, and oh dear I already start to worry about your next bushfire season. The Mediterranean cookbook sounds interesting. Is it Mediterranean recipes or based on Mediterranean diet guidelines? Maybe both?

I did some opshopping yesterday (Yes!) and found a 40 year old Asian cookbook for $1. I generally don’t buy cook books because I read them with interest and then only want to make a couple of the recipes. This one is from the early 80’s so more recipes and less photos and chat, but really interesting and I think I have already got my $1 worth. It is big.

I also found some great green trousers, so we would make a great pair in our green and purple pants, LJoyce!

Neil, wow, Dunedin station is stunning.

Betsy, lovely to see your post, but I am so sorry to read that you are feeling so crook. I had hoped that, with last year’s study and the festive season behind you, you would have been able to catch up on rest and be brimming with energy. What you are going through sounds similar to Gday, and it is a hard fact that vague symptoms like fatigue and tummy pains, can often be what medicine is worst at diagnosing and treating.

But I do hope you go back and really let your doctor know how much those symptoms are effecting you. Take someone with you if you can (you can call on me) since you might need a long consultation to get all questions answered and what tests should be done and why etc, and then it is so good to have someone to talk it over with as you remember different things. I find in these situations I need someone with me, a list of symptoms and a time line, and a list of questions to ask.

Hooray that you are no longer gaining, and hopefully you will gradually start losing again. That will be such a relief.
I do know, from long experience (sigh), how feeling exhausted sends us to eat food that is most likely to give some immediate energy… and oh dear it is sugar. What a pity drinking more water wasn’t an easy fix. Something is not working right, so I do hope that you and your doctor can get to the bottom of it.

Thankyou for the tips re glaucoma, it is a relief that it can be managed well. They have been testing us early because it is in the family.

Enjoy that tennis!

Hi Thin, I think my podcast guy (Kevin Stroud) might write his book after he has finished the podcasts. But I bet your book is one of his resources.
I so relate to your experience of post that ‘pack up and move’ time when eating lightly and losing weight was just part of the action, (like when my YamDaisy Cafe was looking like it was starting) and then when it all quietens down everything changes and the role of food in our lives has to be so much more conscious and planned.

Anzac, I just saw your post. I am lighting a little candle that will last 4 hours so sending light and good wishes around your preparation, interview and that much needed coffee when it is over! So hoping it is the perfect job for you and they can see you are the perfect person to do it).

Well I am off to water the garden and then it will be after 9, and since I have been awake since 5am, I will deserve my breakfast (don’t laugh at me Lindsay).

Cheers all and best wishes for the day.

Anzac, it’s about 5 minutes until 11:00 AM your time. Lots of positive thoughts and fingers toes and eyes crossed! 😁😄 I have a feeling you’re going to have good news for us.

It’s almost 4:00 PM yesterday (Wednesday) here. 😁

It was a bit gruelling but I think I went ok. I always looks for the signs at the end and they were there (1) they tell you what the next steps will be rather than saying something offhand like ‘we’ll be in touch’ and (2) asked me what my notice period is. It sounds like a challenging role but something I can get my teeth into. And my friend (who would be my lead) is happy there. Fingers crossed and THANKS so much for your positive messages and candle (Cinque) and thoughts because they absolutely definitely helped!

Well done Anzac, those final comments do sound very promising to me. What would your contract length be for this project, if you get it?

Congrats Anzac – those post interview comments sure bode well

And thanks for your thoughts re fires. We’ve certainly had many smoky days but, as much as they’re not good, they’re preferable to facing the fire itself. At least the ones around Canberra are under control now.

I actually watched that slow Ghan train in Australia tv show last weekend. At first I thought ‘how dull’ but then I became quite hynotised by the format. Reminded me of my first ‘proper’ holiday train trip (the Eastern & Oriental) deliberately did not offer WiFi on board. It was great!! Forced me into relaxing and enjoying the hypnotic clickity clack and slowly passing scenery. Highly recommended! The Ghan is now definitely on the list.

Anzac. Sounds promising.

Neil. I never got to see Dunedin Station. The train went as far south as Christchurch and then crossed to Greymouth, where they got into a Land Rover and drove to Milford Sound. Then they sailed off into the sunset. Some impressive country but 7 metres of rain a year at Milford Sound is more than I would desire.

Turnabout. If I remember correctly, my Fig is a variety called Brown Turkey, which is pretty hardy and OK in England. I am in a village over 900 years old in the Forest of Dean. The Dean is the remnant of one of the original forests, although these days a commercial forest so now more pine than oak and beech. It was one of the earliest medieval industrial areas with coal, limestone and iron ore, but that all went last century and the old railway lines are now cycle tracks. We are reverting to nature. We have about 1000 wild boar, a colony of beavers and they are just re-introducing pine martens. I saw a red kite last week. We are on the high ground between the rivers Severn and Wye before they enter the Bristol Channel. I am a little over a km from the Wye, but about 175 metres above it on an exposed north facing slope. In this hemisphere north is the wrong way to face! Those distances and heights are approximate. We measure in metres and litres, but distances and heights are still in miles and feet. I have just done the mental arithmetic. When I confessed my post FD weight I had to convert 15 stones and 7 pounds into lbs/kg.

Thin. Until LJ reminded me, I had managed to forget that you are on this side of the planet. Have you acclimatised yet?

good morning all

My usual routine in the morning is to empty the teapot in the garden and quickly check the veggie patch. This morning I did that before having my shower. It’s a good thing my bathrobe has large pockets as I came in with one pocket stuffed with beans and the other with zucchini. I’m going to have to look in my Jane Grigson vegetable book for things to do with beans as I picked quite a lot of them – not only are the bush beans still producing but the climbing beans have finally started as well. Zucchini are easy – any excess gets made into chips in the airfryer.

Penguin, it looks like Britain is really leaving the EU now. I saw footage of the EU parliament vote yesterday on the French news.

Turn, sounds like you are keeping fit and trim with all that cycling. Nice that you are getting to see so many lovely places too.

Neil, I hope the boss chooses well regarding the new work colleague.
Milford Sound is lovely, but it was Doubtful Sound that really took my breath away. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been – and so quiet with the lack of people.

Penz, the Ghan is on my list too. There’s a tour that does a boat trip up the coast of WA from Perth and then returns to Adelaide via the Ghan. I will get to that one day. I’m leaving the holidays that require a lower fitness and mobility level until later – just in case.

I have another quiet day at home today. No early morning walk today. I’ll just have to use the sun hat later to get to the shopping centre for walking.

Have a good day.

Hello from a hot and muggy Sydney. Nothing like the temps in Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide today though. Stay cool friends!
The humidity is a killer here recently. I am sitting in the dining room with a fan pointing straight at me and poor Maxx is lying chin down on the wooden floor in the lounge room with his own personal fan pointed straight at him. He is really feeling the heat. We can’t have the air-con on all day (we’d go broke!) but I’ll put it on soon. Edit – I had to put it on before I even finished this post! Thank goodness for it

I hope you are feeling better soon Neil. Sounds like you have picked up a virus.

Hi Turn, great to hear from you and I love hearing about your holiday adventures. Congrats on the loss, doesn’t it feel great when the scales start to head south?

The biggest thing that hit me smack in the face on our trip Penguin was the history. Where you live sounds simply stunning and beautiful. I think you should go to NZ for your OH and then you can pop in here on your way home! Then you can meet Maxx (and me of course!). Our spare bedroom is always available for any of my 5:2 friends travelling to Sydney.

Good luck in the heat today Cinque and I hope your little granddaughter enjoys her first day of school. It’s funny but i clearly remember my first day of kindy. Funny because I have a terrible memory but some things stick don’t they? Mine was different because my sister started high school on the same day that I started kindy. So Mum took sister to school as it was a few suburbs away and Dad took the morning off work to take me as it was close to home and he could quickly then jump on the train and go to work. I didn’t attend any sort of pre-school and I already knew how to read (thus started my passion for reading that lives on 50 years later) so I was aching to go to school and make some friends. My Dad is terribly shy (he couldn’t even make a speech at my wedding) and I remember he kind of ushered me through the door, watched me for a few seconds and vanished. I was fine. There were kids everywhere and toys! I went up to a little red headed girl who was crying for her Mum and gave her some play-dough and said ‘why are you crying? Look, there are toys and everything’. We became fast friends for the next 10 years until we both left high school and sadly lost touch. We reconnected a few months ago actually so this reminds me to email her again.

Sorry, long story….will stop now!

I’m sure you will find an awesome recipe for your beans LJ. Your garden is sprouting such lovely fresh produce for you. Enjoy your shopping mall walk.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday all in the SH, the rest of your Thursday Cali and sweet dreams Penguin and Thin in the NH

Woohoo indeed Anzac!

We’ve been running the AC like never before. I usually prefer to have windows open to a cross-breeze but that hasn’t been possible in the weeks of smoke haze we’ve experienced. I was pleasantly surprised when we got our electricity bill last week – I really expected we’d have to take out a second mortgage!

Hi all, I am feeling better but had an insatiable sugar craving today. I ate half a bag of white chocolate buttons that I bought for baking. Well I still have 4 days until my next weigh/in. Hopefully I can turn things around.

Anzac. Sounding good. You should keep me away from Maxx. There is a space in every guy’s life for a Lab and I am currently without one.

Turn. My Father was from Somerset, although the army moved him north in 1940 and after the war he went back north and stayed. Just as well really – he’d married a local girl and I was born whilst he was away. He never totally lost his Somerset accent, which is why mine isn’t true to the NE and I can understand both ends of the country.

Neil. Done that. I find it safer not to have chocolate (or whisky) in the house but occasionally, like your buttons , they sneak in.

Cali. 7 hours sounds a bit much. Two and a half tempted me to fast forward occasionally

We are both just back from a session in the gym. OH is still fairly new to this activity, having started because it will help the bone density. She is becoming very enthusiastic.

This may be my last regular post for a while. We are entering a busy couple of months, starting this afternoon. I shall continue to lurk and I’ll check in enough not to be forgotten.

A wonderful 24 hours here with just under 70ml of rainfall. Everything looks and smells so fresh and clean. The creeks are flowing, roads are blocked and closed, rainwater tanks are full and our car shed flooded not once but twice today. We just finished moving everything and sweeping out the water when another massive downfall hit, the drain pit was already overflowing from the overnight rain so the water had nowhere to go but backflow through the grate drain and into the shed…..again.

Health update. Not much change in energy levels but it will take a few more weeks for the iron tablets etc to kick in. I gained a second opinion on my blood tests but got the same response as the first doctor. At least this one was willing to do further tests to rule out autoimmune and inflammation concerns. Will be another week before those results are back.

The nutritionist is very happy with how my gut is healing since I’ve ceased eating all nuts and seeds. I am very happy with how my belly is feeling too 🤣🤣. Next step in my gut repair process is to eliminate all grains, sourdough, rye etc, pasta, rice, legumes, peas, beans and to go as low carb as I possibly can. I’m fairly low carb anyway but will miss my sourdough toast with our weekend cooked brekky and the occasional pasta dish.

Here’s something I didn’t know. Raw foods such as salads, although very healthy can be quite harsh on the gut as the gut has to work extremely hard to break them down. So to start the breaking down process prior to eating I need to mix ACV with the olive oil for the salad dressing and leave it to sit for half hour prior to eating to soften the veg.

Weight is still going up and down like a yoyo but the nutritionist is confident i will start heading on a downward trend very soon.

I hope everyone is going okay and the scales and tape measures are being kind.
Time for sleep. We all got out of bed at 3am this morning to watch the rain, thunderstorms and amazing lightening display. Rain is so rare here there’s no way we were going to sleep through it.

Hi all, Sunday 5.45pm Rangiora

Just time for a quick post before dinner of steak with blue cheese and mushrooms with salad. Having a lazy day today as it’s so hot and humid and now we have the Aussie smoke over us too, so it makes everything such a strange light. Nowhere near your temps in Oz, but warm all the same at 34 deg with a really warm nor’wester!! Might struggle to get anywhere near 800 cals today, only had some fruit with yoghurt at noon, not really hungry for dinner either, would pass if I wasn’t cooking for OH.

Thanks Cinque, yes we did manage to get the cycle ride in yesterday, would have preferred something longer but it was windy, and thankfully had it on our backs all the way home! Yay!

Hope you are feeling well enough for some activity this weekend Neil, also to work
off those white choc buttons? Looks like it’ll be a busy week down there this week?

Good luck with the busyness Penguin, sometimes it’s just good to lurk eh?

We certainly thought about you all across the ditch earlier when we went to town and the fire engines came rushing by with their sirens blazing, followed their route and then spotted the smoke, still not sure what happened but it’s all under control now and we can’t see anymore smoke. Very worrying though, everywhere here is so tinder dry.

Stay safe everyone and enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Turn

Good morning from cool Melbourne,
WeeAmy, you had better pop over here for the day!

Lovely morning after fast day for me.

LJoyce, how exciting to be full of new ideas and information about your travels, and brochures all over the hose no doubt.

Turnabout, so sad about that smoke, how I hope it ends soon. I’m glad the fire emergency near you was sorted quickly. I hope you get some cooler weather, and water for the land, we don’t want wild fires in NZ
We’ve had three emergency level fires join up over the weekend. It is beyond terrible.

I felt silly after I posted yesterday thinking that the research about raw salads could be connected with fodmaps, belatedly realising fodmaps are in cooked food too but not deleting the whole paragraph, my brain takes a while to do a u-turn.

Ah well, a new day. I have a fairly quiet week, so I will plan lots of nice things to do.

Best wishes all.

Good morning from a much cooler and drizzly Sydney

Oh that heat on the weekend! All three of us wilted terribly and we had the air-con on so much that our next electricity bill might give us a shock (lol).

I lost 600g last week so am very happy with that as I only had a single fast day and it wasn’t very fasty. But the reduction in portion sizes has done its job. Back to regular 2 fast days this week (Tues and Thurs), low calorie days the rest of the working week and relaxed discipline on the weekend (up to a point). I find this works for me.

Glad you are feeling better Neil and those cycling kilometres are impressive.

Please don’t feel silly Cinque; I didn’t even know what a Fodmap was and had to google it! There is so much I don’t know about food and the impact on our health. But I find I learn something new every week from your very wise and informative posts. Thankyou!

LJ, how exciting about your holiday and catch up with Cali. I can’t wait to hear how the planning is going. Do you have any idea on when you will be heading off? Sorry about your evil scales, mine did the opposite last week. I didn’t really feel that my minimal attempt deserved a 600g loss but I’ll take it. I do know the opposite will probably happen this week of course.

Sorry to hear you won’t be able to post much for a while Penguin but yes, please do lurk and let us know how you are going as often as you can

34 degrees is hot anywhere Turn, but especially when you aren’t used to it. Glad the smoke is starting to clear

Hi G’day, glad to hear that you are feeling a bit better but sorry about your flooding. Such a land of extremes. When the Southerly finally hit Sydney last night it brought about 3 storms one after each other and we had a heap of rain too. But no flooding thankfully

OK, work is being neglected again so must get to it. No date/time yet for the second interview but I’m sure I’ll get a call today. Thanks again for your positive thoughts and well wishes. It worked!

We miss you too Quacka!

Hi all, the tennis (Australian Open) is now finished, so I have more time to concentrate on posting. Great to read all your posts.

G’DayfromSA, excellent to read of all the lovely rain you had, even if the shed had to be cleaned out TWICE.

Turnabout and Neilithicman, so sorry to read that NZ is still suffering form the smoke effects from our horrific bushfires. In Melbourne, the effect seems to come and go, and at the moment, there seems to be very little smoke smell around.

Anzac65, lovely to have you back with us, and good that you enjoyed your trip. Interesting that you ended up feeling it was a bit long. The “honeymoon” period visiting new places tends to last 3-4 weeks, and then the consciousness of differences can begin to set in, so I guess that’s understandable. Good luck with the second interview, whenever it happens.

LJoyce, all your travel plans have started to give me “itchy feet”, but I don’t plan to travel overseas again until I complete my doctorate degree, which will be mid-2022, so a ways off yet. Still, it’s interesting to read of your research and plans as you prepare for your trip. Friends of mine travelled by train up from Alice Springs to Darwin last year, with a few days at each end. They enjoyed it a lot, though a bit of a challenge with the train as neither of them enjoys particularly great health and the rattling of the train as they slept seemed to jolt them around. It’s certainly easier though than travelling overseas.

I can sympathise with Penguin’s decision not to travel again for more than 4 hours by air.

Thin, sounds like your DD got a bargain with her airflight ticket, but by the way, will Brexit now start to affect your travel around Europe, need for passports? need for visas?

Quakka, good to hear from you, and it will be good when you can post more regularly (says me, who’s been quite slack over the past few weeks! 🙂 )

Cinque, I’ve been meaning to mention how much I’ve been enjoying the strawberries you gave me. I put the tub outside the front door, and it seems no birds have found it (or they’ve been deterred by Wilbur, my cat?). The strawberries are very small, but very sweet, and every few days I pluck anything from 5-10 from the bushes, give them a brief wash under the tap, and pop them straight in my mouth – yum!

Thank you, by the way, to those who have encouraged me re my health, and Cinque for offering to go with me to see my doctor. I have a good relationship with him, so it won’t be a problem to discuss things, and I do generally write down a list of what I need to discuss so nothing gets forgotten.

What I’ve done so far – I’ve gradually settled on a fairly regular time for bed and getting up, at this stage around midnight and 9 a.m. I’m aiming to gradually retire earlier, which will then shift the morning arising time also to earlier. For a night-owl like me, it’s been an effort, but midnight though still on the later side, is much better than 2 a.m. I’m also making an effort to walk more daily, and not be too sedentary (despite the tennis, I might add 🙂 )during the day. I really like my fitbit because it vibrates on my wrist to remind me to move if I haven’t walked at least 250 steps each hour during the hours of 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.
All of that is to stay that I’m making changes to try to improve general health and wellbeing. Gradually, I’ve been feeling less tired, though I do still have some respiratory symptoms, and a throat which has been sore on and off for a few months now. The throat, I think, is related to stomach problems. Even taking Nexium daily, and recently as instructed by my doctor, twice a day for 10 days, I am getting food reflux. Not much acid burning, though that could be coming up to burn the back of my throat, but I get actual food coming back up into my mouth. That’s a concern, as it could happen at night when I’m sleeping. I think this is the area which needs investigating. I thought about seeing my doctor earlier, but I’ve an appointment with him at the end of February, which I felt was long enough away to see if any of the symptoms subside or not. My suspicion is that I need at least a Barium meal and swallow XRay, and more likely a gastroscopy, to really find out what’s going on there. But, if I can lose a bit of the weight I regained, maybe it will all settle down(?), so I’m basically giving myself till 27/2 for that to happen.

Speaking of health, G’DayfromSA, it seems that though the docs are not concerned about your test results, at least the second one has been prepared to do further tests for your peace of mind. I hope something positive and treatable comes out of all that plus working with the nutritionist to help you find what you can eat without problems.

Will try to post more often now the tennis is over – if for no other reason than to avoid getting behind and there being so much to try to read if I leave it too long.

Good morning everyone

Thank you for the information on the preserving and also pointing me to some good books, LJ. I can see they have been well used which is always a good sign! I am definitely going to try and find a copy of those ones. I’m also going to head to the library and check out what they have there.

Neil, I haven’t tried to make sauerkraut yet but I do want to try. I have made kimchi a couple of times and it is really yummy especially after it has had time to ferment. At first it is quite strong so it’s important to give it the time it needs. I imagine sauerkraut would be the same.
I’ve also made fermented turmeric cauliflower (G’day mentioned it once and that got me wanting to try it). It was also really yummy but cauliflowers are way too expensive to do that at the moment. They were $7.90 each last time I looked! I will need to buy one soon, just for eating, as I am missing my cauliflower and broccoli.

We have had lots of zucchinis from the garden, also eggplant and tomatoes. We have had no success with cucumbers this season despite the gherkins growing and producing really well. OH has just started to pick his capsicums which he is happy about. Chillies have also been slow but are starting to come on now.

Yesterday’s FD went very well and I had well under the 500 cals. By the time I got home the weather had cooled down so I made a miso soup with my home made beef bone broth and veggies (only cabbage, carrot, zucchini, peas and a few dead mushrooms). I also added some kelp noodles and had a boiled egg with it. It was yummy and very filling for not many calories. I had some left over for today’s lunch. It wouldn’t all fit in the container so I also ate the last for breakfast. Mmmmm.

LJ, did you buy the kelp noodles from that website? I have already bought another 6 packets. I soften them up with a squeeze of lemon juice and half (or less) teaspoon of bi carb, mixed into warm water. I test them often to see when they are soft enough to my liking and then rinse them off and they are ready to use. Last time I also bought a packet of sea vegetables in the same brand but I haven’t tried them yet. they do look interesting though.

OK, time for a cuppa and some more work. Take care all and have a lovely day x

Good afternoon all.

Just back from an afternoon walk. I’ve taken advantage of the milder weather to do afternoon walks for a couple of days. It’s steadily heating up again so I’ll limited to mornings only.

Betsy, I really rely on the fitbit getting me off of my backside every hour too. I set mine for 8am-9pm, because I’m always up and awake during that time. I’m surprised at how often it reminds me I’ve been sitting for too long and I’m shocked at how quickly that last hour flew by and I haven’t moved.
I hope the investigations figure out why the nexium hasn’t corrected your reflux. I have a hiatus hernia and used to have constant reflux until I started taking a 40mg nexium table every morning. As long as I don’t eat many high fat foods I no longer have any reflux – for which I’m very grateful. Hopefully they can do an endoscopy or something similar to figure out what’s happening.

Quacka, no I didn’t get the kelp noodles. When I went to the site they were sold out and I forgot to go back again – they have some noodles that were made from mixed sea vegetables but not kelp. (As I’ve had kelp noodles before and liked them I think I’ll stick to what I know I like.) Now I can’t remember the site name – would you mind posting it again – sorry.
You are welcome on the books. I find that for any types of preserves old recipies are generally reliable as they date from a era when many people had to preserve food as freezing and dehydrating were not available yet. Most women (especially those outside of the cities) knew how to do it properly – often with just a wood stove or laundry boiler to work with.
The green and gold was first printed in the 1920s, but was reprinted many times – my copy dates from the early 1940s. In the 90s they issued a 75th anniversary edition and in 2013 a hardback 90th anniversary edition – it is likely one of these is still available and has hopefully had some updates which make the recipies easier for a modern cook to follow. (I just checked and it seems to be available still, eg at https://www.qbd.com.au/) I’m not sure whether my old high school Home Ec. textbook is still around though.
It must not be the season for cucumber, I couldn’t get mine to grow either. I tried sewing direct from seed twice to no avail and even when carefully raised some seedlings in little pots they refused to grow properly when planted out. So I’ve given up and put some snow pea seeds in their place, which have all just sprouted.

Cinque, I can double and a half the 23, does that count?

I’m actually doing a proper 500cal FD today. The last 3 days have all been around 1200 not 800 so I needed to do something to break that pattern. I suspect the extra eating is a reaction to the scales – I don’t react well to anything I consider unjust and I’m especially touchy when it comes to bathroom scales.

Hope you are all having a good day.