Lots of activity while I was sleeping. Good to see you back, Lindsay. So funny about Rosy snatching the duvet thing.

Neil, the artwork is spectacular. Did you and Crazy Artist meet on this forum? A lot of talent there.

Anzac, funny about the bottles! Maxx looks sweet in the photo. Keep up the good work, sounds like you need a plan to tackle weekends, not too many rules, a girl’s gotta have some fun, but just some guidelines so you’re not undoing your good efforts during the week. What a lovely memory of Christmas Day – I’ve seen photos of Barcelona during lock-down, hardly recognisable.

Cinque, nothing like a great pair of Aussie ugg boots. I’m still wearing mine as the oak floors on the boat are cold in the morning. But I was in shorts yesterday, 23C and sunny. Glorious.

LJ, good news with the rheumatologist. I hadn’t realised that there were no face photos. I take most of the photos and I’ve never been one for having a shot of us standing in front of this or that monument to prove we were there. Spoils the view!

The figures for the USA covid sufferers seem alarming but, in fact, per capita are slightly better than Holland and slightly worse than Switzerland. No-one’s even mentioning those two countries. Poor leaders around the world, I’m sure they’re working their buns off to try to make the right decisions with something we’ve never been faced with before – and they just can’t seem to win whatever approach they take. Some of those most highly lauded are actually making terrible economic decisions.

I saw a funny email the other day which was a WWII analogy in which the people of the time were asking questions like, “Why didn’t you have a stockpile of spitfires at the start of the conflict?”; “Does the siren apply to me?”; “The air raid shelter only has M & F toilets and I don’t identify with either”; “Can I have more clarity on the ‘Your country needs you’ slogan, it’s too ambiguous”. Different times!

We’re not sure about future plans. We loved Perth but it’s just too far from everything and we feared we may not want to (or be able to) endure those long haul flights as we age. The original idea was to sell up, buy a narrow boat and cruise the canals for a year while nipping over to Spain and Portugal to investigate buying a bolthole there. We can now envisage staying on the boat longer than a year. What happens next depends, in part, on whether the UK govt. is receptive to allowing OH to stay longer/re-enter if we can leave. It’s probably a bit odd by most people’s thinking for people our age. But, as I tell friends, the thing I fear most about life is regretting not having done something. So, here we are.

Hi all, still here in a now sunny Nelson, rained and cold all day yesterday, yuk. Seems to have been busy few days but don’t really think I’ve done much! Had to change plans at the last moment so didn’t make the farmers market unfortunately, I do so love them, but on the bright side I always end up spending too much and buy food I probably don’t need! Spent Thursday out on the bikes, went out to Tahunanui Beach which was beautiful, sunny warm and no wind, bought some fresh fish from a wet fish shop on our return, enjoyed it last night covered in ground seeds, yum!

My weight has been up and down a bit this week, had some salt earlier in the week and it played havoc, made such a difference on the scales! Feels like I’ve been paying for it ever since. At least I can identify the problem by keeping the food diary.

We are planning to move on from here on Tuesday, but we are have work being done on both the truck and the caravan fridge first thing in the morning so who knows?! We do enjoy freedom camping to, but at the moment we have to follow the sun for the solar if we are not hooked up in a commercial campground, however, some of the sites around the country are part of the Campground Saver programme, which offers huge discounts so we do look out for them. This current site is quite lovely, small but excellent facilities and away from major highways and roads.

Time to go and eat something, hope you all enjoy your weekend,

Turn

Morning, still sunny here, no-one about, you must all be really busy this weekend?? Off for a bike ride today, especially after this mornings reading on the scales, ugh!

I’ll check in later to see if anyone is about, must all be having breakfast in bed, hahaha,

Turn

Good morning everyone

I went out to dinner last night for a friend’s birthday- another friend was hosting. Just a group of 6 spaced around a large dining table.
The meal was lovely and four courses! I ate more than I should have. I’m doing a FD today as I have another birthday dinner to go to tomorrow night.
The Rheumatologist said that it was ok for me to socialise sensibly now that we had no community transmission of covid. I hope they are right because my social life has suddenly exploded. I’ve gone from looking an empty calendar to trying to a squeeze things in – it has my head spinning a bit.
Today I’m heading down to my nephew’s place for the day. I’ve promised to help his wife and daughter (6) make a quilt. My great niece wants to make one for her 2 year old cousin. It will be made from cotton flannelette, because that’s what miss6 chose. I’ll start them off with a tied quilt because it’s the easiest, quickest and easy for everyone to stitch at the same time. I figured it needed to be quick, I don’t think miss6’s patience would cope with a quilt that took weeks to finish. In fact I’ll be surprised if her attention is engaged for the whole day.

Cali, I hope you are ok. The news reports we are seeing here are just awful.

Turn, where are you heading from Nelson?
I saw on the news that NZ was down to one known case. That must be incredibly welcome news.

Lindsay, when you started the story about the sound of something breaking I expected a broken cup, not the litany if damage that you discovered. Would baby gates be of any use to contain her?
I was wondering about the editing – when does it move from suggested corrections to rewriting. My bridge partner used to work for Flinders University and helped foreign students edit their work. She said that far too many of them expected her to do a full rewrite and were not pleased when she said that would not be appropriate. She could offer detailed advice but it had to still be their work. She moved from that role to actually running English classes for the foreign post grad students. She enjoys that a lot more, but it is of course on hold at present.

Well I’d better go, I need another cuppa before I head off for the day.

Hope you all have nice plans for Sunday.

Good afternoon from pre-winter Melbourne (though it feels COLD!). Nothing like your 23 degree day with shorts, thin. Maybe 15?? Not sure, as I’m on the computer with a snoring Wilbur on my lap (the computer is resting on the arm of the couch).

So much has happened since I last posted, but it’s only been 3 days!

Also had a good chuckle at thin’s and Anzac65’s Covid-19 jokes. Ha ha!

Lovely bouquet you posted, Cinque. Where do you find all the beautiful flower pictures.

I remember those photos, Neilithicman. Certainly a MAJOR change since then. Well done you!

Thin, hope this next tunnel is done with lights on, and no scraping.

Further to the heights discussion, I well remember many moons ago being in Paris with brother, sister-in-law and baby niece. SIL wanted to climb up to the first level of the Eiffel Tower while brother said he’d care for the baby, which left me to accompany her up a set of metal stairs with metal grating around, so clear view of up, down and around. I determinedly stared straight ahead, wouldn’t look down. Then halfway up this wistfully scared voice comes from behind me “I’m scared”, with my response “we can’t go down, look straight ahead and keep climbing”. We reached 1st level safely, wandered around okay. Come time to go down, “How are we going to get down?” – me: “Same way we got here, look straight ahead, don’t look down”. Not sure who was the more relieved when we reached the bottom! 🙂

LindsayL, sounds like you need to train OH as well as Rosy – maybe start off by making him do all the cleaning up of Rosy’s messes? How much longer before she will be a mature dog instead of a puppy?

Anzac65, hope the weekend is going okay, and you have kept to your eating game plan.

For May, I lost 3.1 kg, which is really pleasing, but no loss for the past week, not so pleasing – ate a few salty meals, so I’m hoping it will drop off once I’m off the salt again for a few days. Yes, salt does make you retain fluid, as well, for whoever was mentioning it, as the body holds the water to balance the extra salt.

Interesting discussion on editing versus doing a re-write. I’ve had the same thoughts when editing articles and also a friend’s master’s thesis. My rule was to correct spelling mistakes and glaring grammar errors, and question written information that seemed illogical or possibly incorrect, for them to check and correct themselves. I would avoid changing words if they were correct, even if not common usage. That was important because as you wrote, LindsayL, it needs to be their work, especially as they are being graded on it.
On the other hand, when I edited a couple or books pre-publication in China, I corrected everything. Still remember one pamphlet where I corrected the English, then the International Office department head decided to add a couple of comments himself. It was published without me sighting it again. Sigh! Instead of western medicine “being integrated” with Chinese medicine, it was “infiltrating” it. Technically the right word, but definitely wrong usage.

LJoyce, great that you could have dinner out, and hope today’s quilting goes well. Also good news that you can re-commence taking Ibuprofen when needed.

Oops, Zoom meeting in a few minutes. Hi to everyone else. BMI still 29.9, yay! Catch you next time!

CalifD, sorry about the lost post. Please try again.

Lindsay, the Hairy Bikers have a great recipe for ‘leeky mash’ that substitutes leeks for some of the potatoes on dishes like fish pie, shepherd’s pie and so on.

Lindsay, Betsy, LG, et al, I did a fair bit of editing in Perth. I started to experience a trend – foreign students with poor command of English wanting me to re-write their work. Some of it was truly awful and was hard to believe they’d reached the level they had. Once I realised what I was doing, I ended it. Education is Australia’s number two export. DD has seen firsthand what happens when overseas vet students fail an exam. The school ‘works with them’ until they pass. The non-commonwealth supported students are paying four times the fees and there’s pressure to get them through so that they don’t have to repeat a year. It translates to providing them with the answers and lowers the standard of our education.

Lindsay, just read your last post – we have a couple of appliances on the boat with manual instructions translated from Chinese. One of them is literally incomprehensible. We’ve been trying to rid ourselves of disco lights on the radio/CD player since we acquired the boat. I’ve followed the directions countless times and always get the same result. As you mentioned some days back, I’m also going to change how I buy appliances when it’s time to buy everything again for another house. It’s not that the Chinese can’t make quality products, they certainly can, but that middle men can turn a quick buck on cheap junk. The Chinese govt. must be laughing all the way to the bank with our current reliance on them for PPE and bicycles. It seems every man and his dog in England has bought a new bike since the crisis began.

Betsy, good job for May’s weight loss! I made it through the tunnel, it was a short one and I could see the light at the other end. I didn’t do the best job of keeping it straight, the sun was in my eyes as I entered but I went very slowly so no damage when I bumped the walls.

LJ, any word on how bridge clubs might resume?

Cinque, no word from you this morning, are you having a good FD? I have a big spicy soup to take out of the mini freezer for my FD dinner. OH will have a pile of potatoes with his. I’m going to try to limit the milk today although I’m not off to the best start with two milky coffees already.

Thin, our bridge club is still shut down but they are holding online games. I haven’t participated in those. Because there is a mostly elderly and vulnerable membership, they are being very cautious. They will either have to wait until the final restrictions are lifted or find larger tables to space people out to 1.5m apart.

I can’t resist another post – sorry folks. MIA for days, then three (or is it 4?) in one day.

Thin, Universities Australia has just put a submission to the government to allow international students back in. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry as you say…the leading services industry export, even beating tourism, and third after iron ore and coal. Difficult to see the government doing that, when international travel is banned for just about every one else. There’s been a lot about international students’ language standards in the press lately – much is similar to your DD’s experience. There are such rorts and the prospect of permanent residence is often the driver. Maybe Covid will be the reset button that’s needed.

LJ lovely photo, and what a great thing for you to do with your great niece. Thank for for the bee image – I did enjoy it.

And that, I promise, is the last you’ll hear of me today.
(Cinque, you okay?)

Good morning my little lovelies,

It is so cold and rainy here, but inside my little home it is DAY AFTER FAST DAY. And yesterday was quite hard so I am very much enjoying a ridiculous breakfast (plug your ears low carbers) of fluffy pancakes with added finely grated (homegrown) butternut which makes them extra golden, sweet and soft. (And just about adds one serve of veggies 😉 )
Coffee to go with it, bliss.

Turn, it is your last day in Nelson, I think, so I hope it is a lovely one. Sorry you didn’t get to the Farmer’s market, but congratulations on saving yourself from buying too much food, haha. Fresh fish was a good buy!
What interesting things you are discovering from your food diary.
You must be lovely and fit from your bike riding.

Cali, how annoying to lose that post, so glad to see your lovely catch up this morning.

My heart, we are all watching with worry the state of the protests and riots in your country, and in your state.
It is awful that racism, terrible health outcomes and unemployment have all been triggers, all exacerbated by the pandemic. It has been heartening to see some powerful speeches calling for peaceful action and to keep everyone safe and included. May they prevail.

And oh, dear, I do hope you may be lucky and avoid a large spread of the virus.

Thinking of you and hoping you can concentrate your energy to keep yourself healthy and overcome that stress eating bit by bit.

Re my poor feet, I am glad to say that once I threw away the old flat shoes the pain subsided, but with my warm slippers/boots gone my feet were cold! And now, I am sad to report, after wearing my new ugg boots for a couple of days, the plantar fasciitis is returning. But hoping to get out today to buy arch support inserts, and in the meantime I am wearing my old runners, again. I’m using that tennis ball several times a day, and I am very glad of it.

Lindsay, That pup! Really, Rosy! Isn’t she giving you some good stories to remind her of when she is older and more settled. (Well, that will teach you to stay in bed an extra ten minutes!!!!)

Congratulations on the .3 gone, that is a good pat of butter!

I also understand exactly what you say about editing the thesis, and I remember when I was so young and clueless I was so grateful to people who really helped me out, rather than leaving me struggling, with extra instructions. I learnt SO much and was so grateful for the break. I could see the same thing when I was the teacher working with migrant groups and Aboriginal communities. While I loved to empower people to make their own way, I realised ‘when in doubt, help them out’.

Haha I still remember the first time I tasted an olive (on a pizza) and couldn’t believe anyone could eat such a foul thing! Then I became addicted.
Ottolenghi is another cook I love!

How lovely to have some of the shade gone, not to mention a family courtyard cuppa and a picnic. Miss 4 is a classic. Another reporter in the family, I think.
I hope those amazing sounding seedlings are all happily planted now.

LJoyce, what a social life. Very nice, I must say. I hope you have some good rests inbetween. I am so glad the quilt making turned out so well. I love the bee and bear material too! And what a perfect pattern for first timers, no wonder Miss 6 stayed so engaged for most of it.

Betsy, you were such a hero up and down the Eiffel Tower. Haha re China adding ‘infiltrated’ isn’t English amazing with those subtle differences between words that basically mean the same thing.

Hooray, Ms Under 30 BMI, here are some flowers just for you, with an insight into how I find them. I thought, what might Betsy like? Maybe a bouquet of the sort of flowers that grow in China. Google china flowers bouquet. The internet suggested this 🙂 https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1bCqVLFXXXXXIXpXXq6xXFXXXk/225626130/HTB1bCqVLFXXXXXIXpXXq6xXFXXXk.jpg?size=52936&height=480&width=720&hash=f85fe513ef3b76df6097144280e4dbe9
They are made from bone china! But I do remember you talking about roses in China, and aren’t these beautiful.

Well, I am feeling so happy and replete after my breakfast. Hopefully I didn’t cancel out my fast day. I’ve some lovely veggies and stew and some fish for my next meals and it should be very easy to have no snacks.

Sending good wishes to you all

Good afternoon all.

My social outings have come to an abrupt halt – temporarily. Due to illness – not mine! The birthday boy (4) and his sister have respiratory infections, so no birthday dinner tonight. They are considering a Sunday brunch if everyone is well. I had planned to go over to physio appointment in the eastern suburbs mid afternoon, then to visit my aunt and then onto the birthday tea. Unfortunately my aunt has a lung infection which is getting worse and was heading back to the doctor for a change of antibiotic this morning, so that is off too. Just the physio treatment remains. Never mind, there will be more get togethers, they are just postponed.
To be honest I’m a bit tired today after two days of outings so I’m not sorry that it’s relatively quiet.

Anzac, looks like you need a better hiding spot for the paper towel. It’s a good thing that it’s easy to find at the supermarket now.
I think you are doing splendidly with your eating. Working from home as an ongoing pattern has been a good thing for you I think. Probably a bit more rested and maybe a bit less stressed? That end of day exhaustion can result in a lot of mindless food consumption.

Cinque, if you hadn’t told us that those roses were porcelain I would have thought they were real – they look real, what a clever artist.

Cali, very glad you got to stick with your Saturday night tradition.
Also very glad you go to have that chat with a neighbour. Aren’t the face to face chats lovely. I some of those sitting in the garden with my aunt when we were both isolating where possible. It’s funny how it’s different to a phone conversation. I think it meets our need to connect with others and I think seeing someones face and being able to pick up on body language is part of that – even if we’re not aware that we’re doing it.
I hope the the situation there calms soon.

Betsy, I did the same at the eiffel tower – looked out not down. It helped that I went up at night time and the night shy changes the perspective and I find the distance down is obscured somewhat. Looking at the city lights was lovely. I’m pretty sure we went up in lift, not stairs though.
I’m bad with ladders too. The tallest ladder I own has 3 steps!

Turn, I hope those repairs go well and you can head off to your new destination tomorrow. Are you heading to the North Island next?

I’d better stop now as my physio appointment is in an hour and I need to leave very soon.

Quick drop-in, but saw this on another forum and loved it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lymQjNqR1t8

Loved the quilt, LJoyce – great job!

Pity about the Bridge clubs. Hadn’t really thought, but of course they’re also closed. I play something called Bridge Baron on my computer, so keep up with bridge that way.

CalifDreamer, stay safe, not only from Covid-19, but the terrible rioting going on. I am praying for peace and calm to prevail.

Cinque – pancakes? Really? You just wrote that to make us all hungry and envious, didn’t you?! 🙂
Hope the plantar fasciitis settles again quickly.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the beautiful roses. Don’t remember seeing that soft, gentle colour in China, but I love them.

Anzac65, yay you to be on the downward trail again. Well done.

LJoyce, sorry to read of the halt in your socialisation. Re the Eiffel Tower, when I agreed to go up to level 1, I didn’t realise the steps were open to the view around (and down). Not sure I’d have agreed to go up if I’d known. Not sure whether there is any difference now in the way people can go up. The lift I think was mainly to level 2 then, or maybe it was too expensive?? Can’t remember now. It’s maybe 40+ years ago I’m talking about.

Thin, glad the tunnel was no problem this time. It would be lovely if you are able to go on into Wales.

LindsayL, yes, many of my international students mention their goal is to gain permanent residence. Maybe if they open the border to students with the proviso that they have to self-isolate in hotels, at their own expense, for 14 days before commencing their studies, it will be okay. (And with monitoring of the isolation!).

Hi to everyone else lurking and not posting.

Stay safe and well!

Good morning,
Another cold day, but not as bitterly cold as yesterday (so far!).

Arch support inserts are wonderful! Happily wearing my ugg boots again. Much sympathy to Mr Anzac, food problems are awful.

Anzac, so glad you are out from under the 90’s again. Onward and downward! 84, here you come.

LJoyce, enjoy the break to catch your breath, but best wishes that the kiddies, and especially your aunt, improve soon.
I hope your physio was a great session.

The china roses artist was brilliant, so delicate, the other china flowers on the page were clearly made of china, and I nearly picked one of those on purpose as they illustrated the joke. But how could I go past the beautifullest ones.

Betsy, I imagine in China they delight in bright red roses.

What a lovely clip about the friendly little magpie.

Thin, I was so busy eating pancakes, I missed that you had made it through the tunnel safely. Hooray. I bet each one will get easier.

I have some trousers and skirts I don’t fit comfortably into at the moment. Oh dear. And then remembered that I should measure my waist to check how I was going, and then realised I was reluctant to. Shamed. So that has given me a kick up the bum. So I’m officially not maintaining at the moment! I need to lose enough weight to wear all my winter skirts and trousers.

Fast Day tomorrow!

Hi Neil!

One final thing: as well as getting my shoe inserts (and buying catfood), I went to the Asian grocery and went crazy! Dried shrimp skins, yuba, white cloud fungus, shiitake and then I saw a bag of dried yellow stripe trevally (also called yellowstripe scad). Fish! I thought they might go well in my miso soup. It says on the bag that they need to be cooked before consuming, but that is all I know. I’ve googled under every name and phrase I can think of, and haven’t learnt enough to make me confident. Are any of you familiar with them? I am planning to hydrate a couple and then simmer them in my soup tomorrow and see what I think, but I would be so glad of any information, tips or recipes.

Cheers all, have a good day

Good evening all!

Neilithicman, great that you had such a relaxed and enjoyable weekend. And now it’s back to work again. Are you still basically locked in at work until you leave to go home in the evening, or are you allowed go out for a coffee now? Restrictions here are gradually easing, but not sure of what’s happening in NZ.

Cinque – opposite to you, my winter clothes are getting looser and I’l have to ensure I wear them all before (I hope) they become too loose.
Roses in China? A lot that used to be there along the roads have gone now, as the roads have been widened in a lot of places to accommodate the increased number of cars. Certainly the case in Tianjin, where I lived for several years. Main colours probably red, orange and yellow.
Good the inserts are working well.
Can’t help re the fish, sorry.

LJoyce, like you I have had a few mornings recently where I arose between 10 and 11 a.m., which has meant I lost those mornings, quite frustrating. With keeping to 4:3, I’m more tired than usual, but I have to try to get to bed earlier. Losing the morning wastes so much of the productive part of the day!

Keep well, stay safe all.

Good morning, cold, grey and wet is looking like the norm here for the foreseeable future.

Wednesday fast day. I am channeling you Betsy, to get some nice loose winter clothes. (I’ll let you slim out of yours while I slim into mine!). Good luck to you too, LJoyce.

I found out about the fish! They are small thin little things https://imgur.com/a/fHJvRFU and they are traditionally deep fried and served with rice and a chili condiment. I tried (bit of oil in the wok) and they are so good! (Given that I like the taste of the fishy sea). They will make a lovely crispy, chewy, savoury addition to meals.

But none today! It is Fast Day. They aren’t much use for my miso soup. However I have fungi, yuba and seaweed aplenty! It will be a feast of a dish tonight.

LJoyce, I want to try baccala, and there is a little supermarket nearby that sells it. I presumed it would be a cheap alternative to fresh fish, but no!

I’m jealous of the rest of Australia (and NZ) at the moment. If Vic could just have a day now and then with no new coronavirus cases! But at least we seem to be catching them as they appear, and stopping a lot more. And I know our numbers are low compared to so many places in the world. So shush Cinque.

Oh dear Neil, a visit to a sweet factory would be a temptation indeed. It is that tricky transition to maintenance, and sad to say, if you are like me. it is neverending! But sending best wishes for a good week this week. Hoping we can both stick to nutritious calories and as much exercise as we can manage.

That goes for everyone else too!

Must rush, it is homehelp today and I really need several hours to prepare so it is all covid safe, but I only have one hour. Wish me luck!

Best wishes everyone for a good day. And special wishes to you Cali, our news is 90% news of all that is happening in your country. So much to worry about, but hooray for the stories of compassion and kindness.

Hoping we can all make the most of this precious day. <3

Good morning all

Sunny today in Sydney but there is a very cold wind that makes it quite unpleasant. Maxx is tucked up in his doona snoozing contentedly.

I forgot to tell you about my adventure last Thursday. At work we were given the option of returning to the office full time (depending on numbers as only 50% are allowed in at any time), returning to the office part-time or WFH indefinitely. I chose the latter of course. However, because everyone who goes in will need to be spread out, those of us WFH needed to go in and remove all personal items from our desks. Gah. So I went in early and there were only 4-5 people in my carriage both ways. It was so incredibly eerie in the city with empty streets – it made it all feel so much more real. I quickly emptied my desk drawers and scurried home. I am so happy that I will have a whole winter where I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn and shiver my way into the crowded, polluted city.

I had a blip day yesterday with mindless snacking. Again. And the scales shot up alarmingly as they do when you suddenly have a lot more salt and carbs. Back on the bandwagon today

Hope you were able to get your house ready in time for your home help Cinque.

LJ, I didn’t sleep well last night either so am feeling a bit ‘sand-in-the-eyes’ today. Hopefully tonight is better

Will try and post later friends, take care

Talk about extremes. Yesterday I slept in until 10:30 and this morning I was up at 5:30. I don’t know what my body clock is thinking at present – I’d rather like something in the middle of those.

GDSA, I’m sorry to hear about the job applications. I was feeling confident for you about the one you had the zoom interview for. Sometimes I wonder if firms are just going through the motions and already have someone earmarked for a position. I always got that impression with some government and most university positions.
I did not post before and after photos online. I’m not really comfortable having my image on the internet.
I have a dyson vacuum cleaner. It works quite well but I haven’t needed repairs, so I don’t know what the after sales service is like.

Anzac, what excellent news. I wonder how many will actually want to go back to the office full time. I always enjoyed having the best of both worlds and like to do 1-2 days in the office and the rest at home.

Cinque, so good that you found info specific to the fish you bought. When I went searching almost all of the recipes were for salt cod.
Cinque I think the main reassurance that you can have with the Victorian cases is that you have an amazing rate of testing in your state (those that aren’t doing as much may have cases they haven’t found) and you don’t have cases where the source is unknown – and that tracing is critical to community safety. You also have a Premier who is cautious and who seems to be pacing the easing of restrictions with the comparative number of cases in Victoria.

Betsy, when I first retired I too used to stay up late and sleep in late but I eventually managed to break that habit. I really don’t want to go back to it. Let’s hope we both get our sleeping patterns sorted. I wish I could channel a bit of your diet focus too as mine ins nowhere near as successful at the moment.

Neil, I’m pretty impressed that you navigated all of those food challenges and only gained 700 grams. You will deal with it in your usual style.

My eating has been so erratic. I’m still doing alternate days of 800cal and they continue to be mostly easy, but my NFDs are no better. Far too much snacking and a hankering for sweets that is becoming more and more insistent.

It has really felt like winter here for the last week – lots of rain and a real chill in the air.

Take care all.

GDSA, get a Dyson! It was almost a pleasure to vacuum once I got the Dyson. Can’t comment on the replacement parts because ours never failed. I’d be very surprised if parts weren’t available but that would be easy to investigate online.

Anzac, what a surreal experience going in an empty Sydney on an empty train. Did you photograph it? I’ve only seen photos since our life is basically the same on the canals. Great that you’re able to WFH and avoid those rude commuters. I wonder if they’ll still be pushing in when they return to the trains!

Woke to rain this morning which is a big change, I think I read it was the driest May on record. We were trying to remember when it rained last. It’s also gone from 24C to 14C today! Glad I got all my painting done over the past few days.

LJ, good morning, our posts crossed, I thought you’d be commenting on the Dyson! Interesting about bridge. Such a shame, isn’t it? For so many ‘older’ people, it’s their only social outlet and a way of life.

Good morning everyone,

Gday, that steady loss over 7 days is all your good work. Well done.
Extra kudos that you kept it up in the face of all those things breaking down and a tiresome time job hunting. (Isn’t it so much easier when someone you know knows of a job). Hooray for picking yourself up and writing more applications. It will happen eventually. Soon I hope!

Anzac, great news that you can keep working from home! What an eerie trip into the city. I think the public will come back to public transport slowly. Dr Norman Swan says facemasks and the Covid App are the trick to doing it safely.

Well now you are looking at your future of work from home you can work out your new rules for eating in work hours. Can’t blame workmates for bringing in doughnuts any more!

I did manage to get organised for home help, and it was lovely to get everything clean. I have now caused chaos in the kitchen, but it is mostly that I made soup and then quince tagine, in the afternoon and then got too tired to stack the dishwasher. So I had celery soup yesterday and all my lovely miso soup ingredients will have to wait for Sunday.

LJoyce, I hope last night you got nicely inbetween sleep hours, and woke at 7:30.Haha, yes I googled the fish under everything I could think of, and found HUNDREDS of sites selling them, but no-one cooking them. The only recipes where they deep fried them had fresh ones. Luckily someone in our local facebook group knew all about them.

Oh dear those sweets. That saying I love, about eating beans: ‘The more you eat, the more can eat’ seems to go slightly differently for sweets: “The more your eat them, more you eat and eat and eat’. Sigh. Hopefully you have cleared the house of them all now and can give yourself a break.

Interesting point about it standing in for for protein Betsy. That makes sense. And for needing to drink water too. Chicken soup must be the remedy!

Doesn’t sleeping well make EVERYTHING better.

Haha yes, 14c expected again today. Sun expected though, hooray!

Well I had a good fast day yesterday, a good breakfast this morning and soup coming up for lunch. Winter clothes, here I come.

Best wishes all.

Good afternoon from sunny (but still cool!) Melbourne.

Had the plumber here today with his camera to try to check out what damage there is with my drainage. He confirmed that one grate had never had a connection to the storm water system, and that’s why so much water leak under the house.

The other grating, halfway up my driveway, IS connected, and water is running through it as it should, so that is really good news.

Unfortunately, his technology failed him so he has to come back, probably late next week. He needs to find where the storm drain is running under the concrete, to know where to break the concrete and dig up the ground, in order to connect up the unconnected grate to the storm water system.

Does all that make sense? It will still be a big job, but maybe not as much concrete will have to be removed and replaced as was first thought. Once he knows where the storm system runs, he’ll be able to give me a quote for the job (already bracing myself for that!).

Neilithicman, you are starring with your exercise, and great that you can now run so far in 45 minutes. Well done. Brr, -7 overnight is COLD. I’m surprised you don’t already have your log burner running!

Cinque, good that you could be organised before your home help came. Whatever else, it gives you a feeling of control. Have you now cleaned up the kitchen and loaded your dishwasher?
Yes, sleeping well is great. Most of the time I get a good night’s sleep which I appreciate, and I’m not tired during the day, even though I’m not using the CPAP machine any more.
I stopped using my CPAP machine in January after trying 3 different nostril masks, as the mask which covered my nose had become so uncomfortable to wear. When none of them worked well, I just stopped altogether. It’s so nice to not be waking up with my head covered in perspiration and big lines across both cheeks where the mask straps went (even with padding under the straps). My GP wasn’t too happy, but I told him I just can’t bear it anymore, and he let me be. Not sure now if I need to go back and see the specialist; it will be discussed with my GP early July.

Irrespective, it’s lovely to be off the machine. I’d wondered if my BP would go up a bit with me not using it, but it’s been okay whenever I’ve checked it, which is wonderful.

Well, enough waffling on. Where is everyone? I only had neil and cinque to respond to!

Keep well, keep safe!

Hello everyone.

I resumed weekly babysitting tonight. The kids were great and my great niece didn’t stop talking to me and showing me things I’d missed the whole time I was there. I asked her if she was happy to be back at school – she said “Yes, Mum’s a boring teacher.” Oh dear – I doubt Mum wants the job either.

Betsy, Neil & Cinque, thank you for the advice about my NFDs. I went back and had a look at my food diary to see when the problem time was and what I had eaten before that. It was almost always the afternoon and occasionally evening. My lunch rarely has much protein. I looked at how to add protein to my lunch and decided the easiest way was to switch my main meal to lunch time as that’s an easy meal to add lean protein to. I’m hoping that will keep me fuller for the afternoon. Then I can have a big bowl of veggie soup for dinner with sourdough toast and either boiled eggs or cheese for protein. I actually feel positive about that idea so I get to try it on tomorrow’s NFD. It sounds like a healthy NFD and filling meals. I will consider the 1000 calorie limit if this doesn’t work, although I would need to do it most days to have much impact on weight loss as my sedentary TDEE is only 1400, so not much of a deficit. I really do need to drink more water too. I notice in the cold weather I always reach for a cup of tea when I’m thirsty. I need to remember to drink a glass of water before each cup of tea – might slow down the caffeine consumption too.

Lindsay, hope you have a lovely tie over on the island, I know you haven’t been able to stay there overnight for some time. I hope the feet recover by then.
The picnic sound like fun too – have a nice time.

Betsy, sounds promising with the storm water drains. My plumber had to remove concrete to install new pipes at my previous house. Providing they get the location right it should be a really neat job. They just need a large enough angle grinder to cut a strip out of the concrete to install the section of pipe that was missed originally. This should avoid the surrounding concrete being damaged. Then the gap is filled with new concrete.
Hope you are getting your sleeping pattern under control. I managed to sleep from 10:30pm-8am last night – an unusually long night’s sleep and I was in bed by 8:30 to read a book.

Thin, I think when bridge does return to the club I will need to do the beginners course again. I am using a bridge app to play, but I’ve forgotten lots of things.

I had my FD dinner ready to go in the oven when I got home from babysitting. Portabello mushrooms stuffed with tomato, basil capsicum and cheese. I had it with one slice of rye sourdough to sop up all of the lovely mushroom juices. Lovely veggie dinner.
My determination to have my main meal at lunch time means I’ve already rummaged through the freezer for suitable options. I’ve taken out a tub of lamb & pumpkin curry. I will also put a bag of cauli & broccoli into the airfryer to roast. I’ve also taken out some cooked chickpeas. Most will be added to the curry to add protein and to help me stretch it to 2 meals. I will also turn some of the chickpeas into hummus so that I can base a healthy high protein snack around it.
Thankyou for all the advice I feel so much more positive about this now.

Take care all.

Good morning, a lovely sunny day and it will be 20 degrees later

How can it possibly be Friday already? I’ve read all of your posts but have a deadline so I can’t reply just now.

Not a good week to say the least food-wise. Scales are up, I am down but enough said. Today is a new day

Take care all

LJ, I played online bridge for the first time in ages the other evening and couldn’t even remember how to bid at first. That’s after two years of learning followed by a ten month absence. I suspect a lot of people will be the same.

Cinque, growing up in England, we always had ‘dinner’ at lunch time. At school, we had a hot midday meal (with chairs and tables in a designated dining room to sit at properly). To this day, my brother cooks himself a full midday meal. I think these days, families tend to eat their main meal at night as it’s the only time everyone’s together. I remember being horrified when DD started school in Australia and discovering that children were expected to eat their lunch sitting cross-legged on the floor. Digestion!

Penguin, how have your last two treatments gone for you?

Good afternoon everyone. So much happening to everyone and so many posts to read.

After the sunniest May on record it has rained. For once it is welcome. The garden was very dry.

Thin, the last two treatments seemed to get easier, or I have learned how to manage them. Counter intuitively the fatigue problem has been improved by taking more exercise – I am doing about 12 km a day on the exercise bike. Because the side effects were minimal I have stopped the initial treatment and start something stronger next week. It will run until late August. I have been warned that it won’t be fun but it will improve my chances. The side effects can be severe and to complicate things we have the house on the market and are starting to have viewings. When that happens I have to disappear, I am still in serious isolation.

Giving that life is about to get complicated I may not be posting very often, but I shall try to keep up with all of your posts.

Cinque, good to hear the extra protein is working for you. I’m finding that eating my lunch after my gym session is helping me. My meals this week have been a morning coffee before work, 2 gold kiwifruit at 11am, gym session from 1-2pm and then I’m not hungry for an hour or so after the gym so I eat my lunch around 3pm, then I don’t feel like snacking when I get home.

Penguin, great to hear from you when you can post. It’s great that you’re feeling well enough to do 12ks on the bike each day, I wish you well with your continued treatment.

I enjoyed a morning trip supporting my local businesses today. I got a coffee for me and some bagels for the boys from the local bagel shop, meat from my favourite butcher next door, fish from the fishmonger, bacon and eggs from the pig and poultry farm up on the peninsula, then the rest of our groceries from the supermarket. I’m enjoying being able to support the local businesses again as the supermarkets had a monopoly on food sales during level 4 and most of level 3 lockdown.

We had our first hint of snow today, some big splotches on the windscreen as I was coming up the hill from shopping. It looks like we’re going to have a decent winter this year.

Well date night for my wife and I tonight so I’ll go and start booking things and I’ll catch up with all of you tomorrow

Good afternoon.
A slightly challenging FD, a bit hungry. However I can have a bowl of soup in the next hour which should settle my appetite down.

Penguin, glad to hear the chemo has been going so well that they are about to make it much more challenging. I have probably already mentioned that my RA drug suppresses my immune system in a similar way to chemo and I used to get similar side effects – nausea, vomiting, headaches etc. I found fasting the day before treatment makes a significant difference – anything up to 800cals works for me. I thought this might be worth trying if you get side effects from this new chemo regime.
There was some UK research on chemo patients where they tried calorie restriction for 3 days, starting 2 days before treatment. It where I got the original idea that it might help me too. After experimenting I discovered I got the same reduction in side effects with just 1 FD as long as it’s the day before treatment.
Good luck with the house sale/purchase/move. That’s a lot to have on your plate at present.

Neil, how wonderful, have a lovely date night?

CInque, I wonder if kombucha counts as fermented?

My best friend visited this morning and we went for a longer walk than I’ve done in ages. No aches and pains from it which is very reassuring.
I also get to go to out tomorrow, which I’m looking forward to. There is family brunch up at Balhannah (country town in the Adelaide Hills) in the morning – glad it’s a NFD! I suspect there will be lots of high protein options among all those cooked breakfast choices.

Hope you are all having a good weekend.