Good morning,
Cold Saturday morning,
Slept better than I usually do, so feeling great.

Anzac, omg, there should be a law against 10 meetings in a day. How dare they do that to you. I hope you are having a kind and restorative weekend and finding lots of (non junk food) (maybe even non food?) treats for yourself.

Happy Birthday Mr Anzac. Excellent fish and chips are a wonderful treat!

Turn, that Moroccan meal sounds wonderful. Hoping the scales are nicely down for the weekend.

Yes, Squatter is a very Australian game. I liked it better than monopoly (because my oldest brother and sister would always rip me off quickly when we played monopoly, giving me the lesson about capitalism the game was designed for).

I also find I need to drink coffee at the early part of the day (drinking some right now) or it keeps me awake at night. And if I haven’t eaten (hello fast days) and especially if I am a bit dehydrated, I can get that nasty shaky, edgy, heart thumping reaction. Hence I start the day with water and tea, and coffee after breakfast.

LJoyce, oh dear the uber delivery waste. A friend who lives in the innercity often finds bags dumped, when the deliverer hasn’t been able to find an address. So glad you could resist that unplanned delivery!

Hooray for sunshine!

Hi Neil, good work at the gym. I like rooibus tea, but not as a substitute for coffee haha. I might buy some though since drinking plain water makes me so cold, this weather.

Hooray for that burst of energy, and the wonderful feeling of your body doing its thing properly.

Good afternoon all.

Thought I’d better write my post before I dive into the cooking for tomorrow’s family dinner.

As I mentioned, I emailed the travel agent yesterday to check on the status of the tour I had paid a deposit on. She said that Globus had cancelled tours until the end of August but not beyond yet (mine starts 13 Sep). She’s expecting a decision on their September tour in 2-3 weeks. Hopefully they decide before the rest of the money is due, as it means I’d get the deposit back – only $250 but I’d rather not lose it if possible.

Lindsay, your experience with the doubter in the deli was not dissimilar to my supermarket expedition yesterday. There was a trio of people chatting and blocking the entrance to an otherwise empty supermarket isle. I waited to the side for someone to create a path for me. The male in the group stepped aside and then looked at me as said “coward”. I was not amused. If we are lucky, we may find a cure for the virus, unfortunately there will never be a cure for stupidity.

Betsy,I also never eat white rice either, unless I’m eating out and even then I try to leave it on my plate. Lots of calories and virtually no fibre – it’s the only grain I can think of that is almost fibre free. For me fibre is the whole point of eating any grains. I find the best way to avoid the rice is to cook some veg to have with the meal rather than rice or other grains – that way I feel nicely full. (Having some bags of frozen veg in the freezer can make this a quick microwave task.)

Cinque, yes I was also very happy to see the football world cup news. Soccer is the only version of football that has rules I understand (quite similar to hockey actually, which I used to play). Not something I watch regularly, but I do if Australia is playing.

Anzac, do you think it would be acceptable to decline those meeting invites for topics outside of your responsibility – if you mentioned competing work deadlines.

Hello to everyone else. Hope you are having a good day.

Today was going to be yet another FD (I’ve already done 2 FD500s and a 1000cal day this week). I couldn’t face it, so it will be a NFD. I need to rethink how I go forward as I’m doing a lot of FDs but my weight is going nowhere.
Despite the annoying scales, my fitbit is at least giving me good news each day. I’ve managed to exceed 10,000 steps every day this week. Happy about that, especially after I discovered Qantas was giving out frequent flyer points for linking my fitbit steps to their app. It might be a while before I can use them though.

I better into the cooking now. I have cobbled together a menu which should keep everyone happy – not themed by cuisine as I usually do. Just good warming winter recipies. If I can get some the chilli con carne, the passionfruit pudding and some of the other prep done today it will stop me panicking tomorrow.

Have a nice weekend all.

Good afternoon all from this sunny but cold Melbourne day. I’m planning (note planning, not committed yet 🙂 ) to go out this afternoon and do some pruning in the garden as there is no rain forecast for the day. We’ll see if I get there. The roses and fruit trees need doing.

Penguin, I understand the problems of a picc line, as I had one when on chemo for breast cancer. I was told not to move my arms about too violently, especially not above my head, so gently gently does it. Maybe resistance exercise rather than movement would work?

Ah, vegies, wish I could, but I’m not growing them to feed the possums.

Cinque and LJoyce, the only rice I have at home is Basmati rice, because it has a relatively low GI. Usually when out I only have a little with lots of protein and vegetables. My fault this time. I bought a Woollies satay chicken and rice meal, and of course the white rice was obviously NOT Basmati rice. As LJoyce wrote, I should have skipped the rice and just had added some vegetables to the chicken.

I actually have this really neat, very long list of items I downloaded a few years ago from the internet which has the GI counts of most popular foods. That’s why I tend to eat light rye sourdough bread, as it’s one of the few breads with a lower GI. Amazingly (to me, anyway), raisin bread also has a fairly low GI, but it’s not a bread I eat often.

Cinque, yes, it’s good that the Darebin cases are well away from where you are. I phoned my eye specialist’s a couple of days ago, checking if they are still seeing patients, as they’re in Ivanhoe, and so far so good. I’d had to defer my appointment from April because of Covid-19.

LJoyce, let’s hope the travel agent’s info comes through in time for you to get your refund. $250 is a few weeks of meals, so not peanuts.

Oh, before I forget, I weighed in yesterday morning at 69.4 kg, had a NFD then weighed in this morning at 69.3 kg, Go figure!? I’m hoping to be below 69 kg by the end of the month, so tomorrow and Tuesday are going to be FDs, maybe Tuesday a FD800. We’ll see if I make it.

Stay safe, stay well everyone.

Good evening all

The hordes have left and I am now resting my weary feet while the dishwasher deals with the clean up for me. We start at 5pm as it’s a school night, which means that everyone can head home around 8pm.

I need to learn to cook a bit less. I always over cater, but I really overestimated this time. There was way too much food even for 10 people. Luckily some were very keen to have leftovers to take to work for lunch tomorrow and I also sent a big doggy bag home for my great nephew’s girlfriend who was working afternoon shift at the children’s hospital. Despite that there was still a lot of containers added to the freezer. It was already pretty full, so I definitely won’t be cooking for a while as I try to get through the meals and soups in there.

I had a modest main course of roast butter chicken, harissa couscous-quinoa and broccoli and roast pumpkin. Unfortunately I really overdid it with the puddings. I’d made 2 self saucing puddings – passionfruit (baked and chilled) and also blueberry which was hot from the oven. Most of the family tried both as did I. Very indulgent, probably over indulgent actually.

I’m doing a 500cal FD tomorrow – very necessary!

Penguin, I hope you had a wonderful catchup with kids and grandkids – something to cheer you up and tire you out all at once.

Betsy, wonderful that your weight continues to fall each day. It shows that you are managing to stay within limits even on NFDs, which is very impressive, given the large number of FDs and CDs you are also doing each week.

Cinque, I often find myself needing to look up ingredients that you mention, as I’ve not heard of them before. Tonight it was kombu. You really are adventurous with your foods.

Time for a cup of decaf tea and then bed I think.

Take care.

Hello all, I wrote this 12 hours ago but had no signal so will try again now:

Sunday FD, I’m making Chicken Bhuna for dinner. If it gets any cooler, I’ll be cooking it on the diesel stove.

Anzac, yes, last week, we enjoyed temps in the low 30Cs, the Brits were all moaning it was too hot. Nice trip to the cafe with Maxx!

I agree, the scenes at the beaches, including those at my home town of Brighton, were alarming. You can’t legislate against stupidity. My general take on people’s reaction to covid remains unchanged from my initial observation. No sense of civic duty for a pandered generation that’s never had to fight for anything. (Yes, I do like sweeping generalisations, ha ha!).

Cinque, I hope those goons in your vicinity get their act together with the help of the army. Maybe we should make them JOIN the army!

Penguin, from one of your recent posts, I feel I might have missed that you’re now experiencing some side effects from your treatment. I’m hoping it’s just the change in energy levels that you’ve mentioned before. The line in your arm sounds unpleasant but makes sense. I believe you told us before that the treatment could be extended until October – is there a break coming up? I hope the biopsy and blood test brought you some good news. How lovely to have your family visiting today. Have you been busy packing boxes in anticipation of the move or do you get ‘people in’ to do that? I imagine it’s a well-oiled machine either way with all the previous moves under your belt. Thanks for the heads up on dentistry.

Whether OH is granted another six months stay on re-entry – or even if re-entry would be permitted, would be solely at the discretion of the official who greets us. At Gatwick, there was no human seen and we didn’t even know how much time had been granted by the machine. At Birmingham, the fella was adamant ‘not a day over 6 months’. You can’t use a tourist visa punctuated by trips out of the country as a means of staying permanently so nipping to Ireland could be seen as trying it on.

LJ, I’m assuming you’d decided against travelling to N. America regardless of the travel agency’s stand on it? Losing $250 is irritating but a small price to pay for your safety and wellbeing. I’m guessing you’ve already investigated whether you have the right to demand your deposit back under these circumstances.

PS Penguin, LJ, I’m so envious of your time with family. Today it was 15C. Diesel stove back on!

Morning all

Turn, did you see any of the tornados that hit during the weekend? I hear there was one near where you are now in Tauranga which ripped off a roof.

Thin, I agree wonder if the response from the youth would be any different if this pandemic was like the swine flu that affected mainly younger people rather than those over 60. I’ve even seen some from the younger generation harshly refer to Covid19 as the “boomer-remover” There really is an air of selfishness about the way some people are reacting to the virus.

Penguin, HA, is it time for a home haircut? break out the pudding bowl and the scissors

Ljoyce, we always have the overcatering issue when we have family gatherings, despite having a few hungry teenage boys at the meals, there’s still tons of food left over afterwards.

Cinque, yes that was me asking about the dashi, it sounds pretty good.

Betsy, continued congratulations for your continued success on the scales! Go you good thing!

I had a decent weekend, the weather was pretty crap so I didn’t get the outside work done that I was hoping, but I did manage to get out for a couple of rounds of frisbee golf when the drizzle eased off, so I was happy with that. I avoided alcohol and most junk over the weekend, I did have a few carbs, but I’m trying to be a little less strict over the weekend, I find that if I try to be too strict on non fast days, the I usually cave in after a while and go on a huge binge, so I allowed myself a little bit of naan bread, a couple of pieces of toast, and a couple of rows of chocolate over the weekend, and I managed to stay well within my TDEE limit.

I’m fasting today with a couple of kiwifruit for a snack, a small portion of leftover veggie risotto for lunch, and a chicken leg and veggies for dinner. I’ll put in a good gym session today and tomorrow and see if my new eating regime has had any impact on the scales for my regular Wednesday weigh-in on the 1st July.

Good afternoon all

I’ve had a slow and quiet start to the day. I feel tired and a bit seedy after the flurry of activity on the weekend and my over indulgence on high fat foods last night. My brain isn’t quite connecting properly – a sugar fog I think.

Penguin, despite the awful traffic, I’m glad your family arrived safely and you had a lovely time together.
You are right, we do have some small pockets of Covid re-surfacing – in a couple of outer suburban areas of Melbourne. They are currently handling it with a localised communication and testing blitz. We haven’t gotten to locking down suburbs yet, put the state premier has indicated that it’s a possibility if the current approach doesn’t work.
It does sound like a haircut is overdue, although I imagine going to a hairdresser is not a wise risk for you right now. Would you trust Mrs P with the scissors?

Thin, the family time was lovely and such a treat after so many months.
The visa situation sounds complicated, especially as you own your boat and can’t just leave it for a lengthy period and head back to oz. I hope you find a solution soon.
As to my travel plans, I am unlikely to be allowed out of the country, even if the tour company decides it will run Canadian tours in September. You might not have been aware that the international travel ban here doesn’t just stop non-residents from arriving, it also stop Australians from leaving. The only exception is humanitarian and compassionate exemptions – which have an official approval process. Basically Australia has been locked down since March and the government has said that this is likely to stay in place until at least the end of 2020. When they do open it they have also said that they would start with a few countries (like NZ) that have the infection well managed. It means Australians can still come home (if they can get a flight) but they can’t leave again this year.
I certainly intend to travel – hopefully next year. Where and when will probably depend on whether there’s vaccine or successful treatment yet as I can’t see that there will be a safe way for me to travel unless one of those eventuates. Getting adequate travel insurance is also an issue as the industry has decided it won’t offer covid cover – I hope that will change to be an optional (and expensive) extra cover option, as otherwise it would deter many potential travellers.

Anzac, I have had many of those bad hair days too in recent weeks. What’s the point of blow drying and damaging my hair if nobody will see it?
I have similar issues with caffeine and sleep. Not coffee for me, but tea. I have found that any caffeine beyond about 5pm is an issue. I had one night last week where I felt like a pot of earl grey tea in the evening, so I had 2 cups and barely slept that night. Lesson learned!
Although I always err on the side of generosity when it comes to catering. I think the reason it gets out of hand with this particular family group is that I need to deal such a variety of likes and dislikes, so I need to make sure there is at least one dish that each person will be happy with. However, I could certainly have made smaller quantities of the many dishes I made.

Turn, glad to hear that your van and you survived those storms, or tornado as Neil called it. You are lucky your van stayed in place if the winds were that powerful. Hopefully you’ll now have sunny days as compensation. Will you continue to head north soon for a warmer climate?

Neil, I am doing the same as you today. A FD with fruit as a snack and some leftovers as a FD meal – a scoop of chilli con carne with veg for me.

There was an extra guest last night. My niece’s husband was allowed home for a 6 week break from his job at a mine in the north of WA. He’s been stuck in WA since March, working 4 weeks straight (of 13 hours days) and then having a week off in Perth. It was all getting a bit much for him and the separation was also taking a toll on the family here. They hadn’t told me he’d come home unexpectedly, so when he arrived at the front door with my niece last night it was such a wonderful surprise. There was of course, plenty of food for an extra guest!

Cinque, I suspect our posts will cross so I’ll say hello now.

Hello too to everyone else who is ready but not posting. Hope you are all well.

Have a good day all.

Hi Cali, lovely to hear from you.
I’ve been following the US news and have gathered that you’d still be hunkered down at home as it’s just not safe to be out except for essential trips with a mask, like food shopping.
You aren’t only one struggling with food. I’m not doing any better with my weight and I don’t even have the excuse of being stuck at home any more. When you said it feels like life is on hold, I agree and I think that’s part of the problem. It’s hard to get my head back into my usual food mindset when life still doesn’t feel normal.
I too have been thinking about the delay to my travel and visiting plans and still feeling very regretful about it. That I don’t know how long they’ll be delayed for makes it even more frustrating. As I mentioned in my reply to Thin, Aussies aren’t even allowed out of the country at the moment and it’s likely to be 2021 before that changes to any real degree. I will get there – just not making any promises about when at the moment.
Take care.

Good morning,
Not as icy here this morning, but for some reason Miso the cat is not prepared to go out. I’ve been out a couple of times to tip the (nutrition dense 😉 ) kitchen slop water on my garden. And my garden now has some coriander plants that might be growing! I bought a bunch with all the roots matted tgether from their clever hydroponic growing, and just sawed them apart and planted them in different parts of the garden (After cutting off the leaves which were yum yum). It would be lovely if they grew. So far so good.
Yes, I am cleaning the kitchen. Only managed to mess it up yesterday, plus I was on a munchie rampage, in a home with no munchies (thank goodness). Well no terrible ones, I had a cob of sweet corn, a bowl of junket 😉 and I must have needed almonds as I ate a couple of handfuls and this morning I am back to normal, and back to 4 hours between meals, I hope.

LJoyce, what a lovely family dinner, with a surprise guest too, so just as well you didn’t undercater. Hope you are feeling well today.

Ha re the dashi, it has taken me years (five nearly) of having my fast day miso soup, to get into making it somewhere near the way it is meant to be made.
I am glad to be getting seaweed in my diet, it is quite a wonder food.

I am similar with drinking tea too late into the evening, it doesn’t stop me from sleeping, but it does wake me up for loo visits!

Penguin, I am glad that the line in your arm isn’t much of a hassle for you. I do hope your family were reassured after being able to visit. It is so hard being far away from someone you care about who is going through something serious.
Haha re your mad hair. Nearly ponytail time 😉

Well Betsy and I are in the epicentre of the coronavirus resurfacing in the SH. It was a shock having the daily number almost double yesterday. I really wish Australia had gone for an elimination strategy (looking at you, New Zealand) rather than suppression. It will drag on and on and on until there is a vaccine. Hooray for the states who have been able to eliminate it, may that status continue.

But I do think of the places where it is still raging, and know how lucky we are to be dealing with a comparatively tiny outbreak.
Cali, I do keep being amazed at California’s numbers, and feeling such sadness for the people suffering all over the country. I know that in Texas some hospitals have reached capacity and that is an awful sign. So glad you are in the safer north of your state.

Living with the constant stress is hard, and you do need to just ‘get over the rough ground as lightly as you can’ until you are in a safe enough place to make some guidelines for your health. (But do keep posting anyway!)
Yes, that insomnia sketch was so funny because it was so relatable. It was put up in a science account on twitter and I loved the researchers who nodded sagely that is was good science.

Thin, that chicken bhuna would be wonderful! I want some!

It does seem to be young people who are catching Covid19 this time round. It may knock some sense into their heads without them having to join the army, haha. But hopefully it will also mean there are not so many hospital admissions and, best of all, less deaths. The government is getting its messages directed to them, and making sure that communities who don’t easily get news reports have better messaging too, in community languages and through appropriate channels. Hoping that will end this spike and avoid another.

Oh my gosh, good luck getting a kind Official greeting you, and another 6 month visa.

15c top forecast here today too!

Turnabout, that rain must be hard to handle in your van. No wonder your emotions are all over the place. Ooh those naughty scales. I am sure they are just in a bad mood. Don’t let them affect you badly, if you can possibly help it.

Neil, good work. July tomorrow!

Anzac, your scales are in the same bad mood as Turn’s are! I think your hair sounds wonderful! So glad you (finally) got a good nights sleep, and I hope you had another one last night.

Betsy congratulations on getting out in the garden, what a lot you have got done! And fingers crossed the extra calories didn’t exceed the energy lost by too much.
Good luck with your new regime. Always the best decision, to adjust what isn’t working.

Interesting news that triple cotton masks not only protect others from the wearer, if they are infectious, but give the wearer about 70$% protection from others. Mine are two layers, but have a pocket inbetween where I can put a medical grade insert – or just another layer of cotton.

Well, Miso the cat has been out and back in, and the kitchen got a bit tidier between paragraphs. I had a late breakfast, which is good, and so I will have a late midday meal because I will wait 4 hours. (2 pm!). What wonderful things will I manage to do before then? Off to find out.

Best wishes all

Good afternoon everyone.

I’ve been giving some thought to how to restructure my eating plan, as my NFDs are still an ongoing issue and are undoing the good work I do on FDs. Despite doing ADF in June I lost no weight so it needed a rethink. I am not finding it hard to do more than 2 FDs each week but I continue to struggle to keep the treats out of the NFDs. I have felt inspired by Betsy’s new plan. Although I refuse to count calories, so I will adapt the idea to 2 x 500calFDs and a 3rd FD up to 800cal. Three days will be no frills NFDs – filling and balanced meals, with 1-2 pieces of fresh fruit as snacks. The seventh day of the week will be a NFD without those limitations and that will allow me to accommodate social events. I have found that when I indulge in a little extra on most NFDs it adds up to quite a lot extra over the week. If I can confine it to a single day it’s likely I will consume much less of those discretionary high cal foods – much harder to do in a single day. This plan feels very doable so I’ll give that a try in July.

Cinque, I have days like that when I have the munchies all afternoon and am bemoaning the lack of snack foods in my house! Funny, I always reach for the container of almonds too. I am slightly worried that there is some icecream left in the container I bought for Sunday night – not something I can usually be trusted to have in the house.
I love the description of Miso’s brief and tentative trips outside on cold mornings – frankly I don’t blame her.

Anzac, I’m sure the episode with Maxx was terrifying, most dogs have little traffic sense unless they’ve hit by a car.
I’m sure you’ve had a bucket load of advice on the issue, so please feel free to ignore the next bit. But I might as well share what I’ve observed from next door. I hear my neigbours in their back yard with their black lab every afternoon practicing obedience behaviours for about 20 minutes or so, followed by play time and a walk. She is fairly well behaved, although still likes to jump up on people she knows occasionally despite all their efforts. I try to remember not to respond when she does that – although it’s hard not to.

Betsy, after all that pruning, you should have an excellent crop of roses next season.
I was a bit shocked when you said your studies resume next week. It seems like no time since you decided to take a semester off. I hope you are looking forward to getting back to your thesis.
I am similar when it comes to finding the right reply to unexpected/unkind comments or bullying behaviour. I find I mentally freeze and find it impossible to respond as I’d like at the time. Of course I can usually think of a dozen responses in the days following.

I have another food challenge day. I’m going to the Marion Club for dinner with my neighbours tonight. Due to covid it’s a limited menu and there aren’t a lot of good options. I’m thinking a steak and a side of green veg. It seems to be the only thing that’s grilled rather than deep fried.

Take care all.

Woo!!

Finally some movement on the scale. I was down 0.9 kilos to 90.0 kg on the dot. Looks like cutting out the alcohol, cutting down the milky coffees to non fast days and a new eating regime is working. Thank you July 😉

Good morning,
Here is your flower for the day, Penguin, nice and early so you can imagine wearing it to your appointment and amusing (?) the staff.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/64/92/2b/64922ba3440891a11edd6f14830ed51d.jpg

Anzac, your work is too frantic! Just sayin’.
And so is Maxx 😉
But we are so glad you managed to find time to post here, and hooray for a great start to the week. May it continue. You will be so delighted at the end of the week.

LJoyce, I am angry on your behalf at those scales of yours. How can it possibly be that you aren’t losing weight nicely. It just isn’t fair. I hope the new pattern works. (My nice pattern foundered for a few days, but now has picked itself up again).
I do hope your dinner last night was great fun and worked for you, foodwise.

Miso the cat just jumped onto the heater and turned on the child lock which resets the thermostat to low. Not quite matching Rosy and Maxx’s tricks, but still makes life an adventure! Haha.

Betsy 1.6kg loss for the month was a triumph. Three cheers!
This week is just being snarky. Won’t you feel great if you lose over a kilo next month too! Down to the 67’s. 65kg will be in sight!

Yes, I am so glad neither of us are in lockdown suburbs! My daughter’s home is, so that will be frustrating. But a small price to pay for getting over the horrible spike.

Neil, Hooray for July. Keep rocking it!

Lindsay, another Master’s thesis! Well, they are lucky to have you. Keep up with those back exercises! (and note to me too, to do the same).
I’ve just checked my coriander plants and 6 out of 8 of them have new leaves growing, so that is good.

Well, I’ve managed to write a shorter post today, haha, I’ll leave off now and start getting the house (flat) ready for my home help angel to clean.

Cheers all. Fast day tomorrow.

Afternoon all from a sunny, warm & finally dry Whakatane.

Yes, did hear about the tornado in Tauranga Neil, didn’t hit here but the storm was pretty violent. Bumped into a woman here yesterday who is staying in a cabin until the weekend as her apartment was hit by lightning, power outage and a flood apparently and her insurance is getting it all fixed up so staying here in the meantime! We had more heavy rain Monday night so the ground is well soggy now. How is your weather going? Did you get any snow with this last southern snap, see Canterbury got it earlier today, now the Cook /strait ferries are cancelled and high winds forecast for Wellington, no doubt we’ll get it in a day or so. Well done on the weight loss and good luck with dry July, did consider it too, but not in the right head space right now!

Miso sounds as much of a character as the other two we have on here Cinque, cheeky little devil! But gorgeous.

I bet your heart was in your mouth Anzac with Maxx running off like that, I am sure he eventually looked at you as if nothing was even wrong? I also think your work schedule is crazy mad and shouldn’t be allowed, I do hope they are paying you well enough? So glad to hear the week started well with the weight loss, long may it continue.

Well done on the pruning Betsy, those plants will certainly thank you for a haircut come spring. And on the weight loss, that’s great, you must be chuffed?

We were startled awake this morning by the Armed Offenders Squad who were after a male and female in a cabin about 100 metres away from us. One of the dogs was behind our van whining, (there were another two that I could see!) another copper just two metres from our window, aiming his rifle at the cabin door. They finally came out about two hours later, apparently it was a drug bust and the guy had several warrants on him, pretty scary though at 6am, and so loud! The whole immediate area was in lockdown. A great way to see a fabulous sunrise, first one I’ve seen in ages, haha

We have decided to stay put for a bit, just hope the weather settles a little? Good news for me getting back to basics, 800gms down so far this week, so all that snacking and evening picking at the wrong foods really does make a difference along with portion size. Well pleased with that.

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday everyone,

Turn

Just a quick pop in. 62.9 this morning. Never thought I would be strong enough to persevere, goes to show what a lot of encouragement and sensible eating can do.

Betsy I meant to comment on your cholesterol. I too fought going on statins and couldn’t believe I had high cholesterol after losing a significant amount of weight. In the end my Dr, who was also reluctant putting me on them especially knowing my adversity to medication, said it could save my life and prevent a heart attack. No one in my immediate family has high cholesterol so it was unfortunate that I had it.

Morning all.

Congratulations Intesha – what an achievement, particularly in tough times.

Betsy, I hope the doctor’s appointment goes well. You’ve done your best to avoid the statins, so if you trust your doctor, I guess you need to take the advice.
I am only committing three days to the masters. I am trying to get my head around the new APA style guide …it’s changed since I finished my PhD, and I don’t find it particularly easy to understand (or follow), or even particiularly logical. The work is more interesting – from the Medicine faculty, so that’s a bonus. Are you using APA?

Mmmm, Rosy and chewing. Possibly it is boredom ..she wakes in the morning and it’s still dark, so away she goes. But often it’s her pinching stuff so we chase her. On the advice of the breeder, I now keep a favourite toy apart, and when Rose takes shoes, etc, I tempt her with the toy, saying ‘swap Rose, swap’. Anyone who could see me in the pitch dark, squeaking a chewed fluffy toy and asking her to give up her treasure would think I was cracked….and they’d be right.

Cinque I am sorry your DD and littlies are back in lockdown ….just when we thought it was getting safer. Is it for a month? Good work on the coriander. And Miso deserves a category all of her own – clever and a trickster too.

By the way, did you get a big blast of warm air from the north a couple of days ago? That was me, sighing with relief, when I read you practise the 3 items rule, not 7. So much more sensible. My big reorganisation is going well …. I finished my storage pantry (Ooh, those beautifully stacked shelves) and I’ve finished the kitchen pantry too. Another tall cupboard of shelves and drawers has been reorganised and now all my mother’s and grandmothers’ vases are stacked right up the top, so I don’t have to get rid of them but they are out of harm’s way.

OK time to get organised. My window cleaner is coming soon, and a fence builder to build up the fence on one side of the courtyard. Rose hasn’t discovered yet that if she steps up on the BBQ, she will be able to walk over the fence behind it …but it’s only a matter of time. Improbably, the builder’s name is Sean Connery, but he’s a Kiwi, and not Scottish. It does make me laugh though when he calls and my phone announces him.

Turn, what a wakeup call! Extraordinary, the lives some people live. Hard to go back to sleep after that.

The quickest of posts, to extend my sympathy to you Quacka. Such a difficult thing, losing a parent. Yes, good he is no longer in pain, and I hope you can take some comfort from that. Take care, be kind to yourself, and know that in time, the lovely memories overtake the more recent ones. My Dad died after a long illness, and we are now able to talk about him and share some of his foibles with affection, rather than the searing hurt when he first passed. hugs to you.

Good evening all.

Cinque, you were right – the scales this morning were on 68.8, so finally a move DOWN, yay!

Quacka, so sorry to read of the loss of your father recently. As others have written, it really hurts now, but that pain will ease.
Re the acid reflux – does reducing your food intake make it worse? I find that eating more, and weighing more makes mine worse, and now I’ve lost some significant weight, the reflux is much less. Just a comment.

The doctor’s appointment was okay. He’s not making me start statins yet, though he’s concerned about the cholesterol result. I have to have another test in 3 months, then see him again and we’ll discuss it. In the meantime, I will have to more diligently limit my NFD indulgences, in particular ice-cream. Sigh! Better to be healthy.

Intesha, my reason for fighting statins is that I already have quite a bit of foot and hand pain from osteo-arthritis, and from what I’ve read and heard from friends, statins often have the side-effect of increasing joint pain. Admittedly, it might not happen, but I will have one more go at bringing my cholesterol down myself, and if that fails, I guess statins it will be. I understand all the heart risks, having had both a mother and older brother with high cholesterol and each having multiple heart attacks.

Cinque, great that you’ll be able the Zoom the grandkids. Hope you found some suitable vegetables; seems that panic buying is now extending to them now, too.

LindsayL, hope the fence is built up before Rosy clues on to its possibility as an escape route.
Yes, I am using APA Referencing in my doctorate. I have the APA version 6 book, which often isn’t a lot of help, but also have a summarised version from one of the local unis which gives me nearly all the guidance I need to reference things accurately.

Anzac65, so sorry for your loss of a friend, too.

LJoyce, you haven’t posted since the 30th. I hope everything is okay?

Thin, any solution found yet re OH’s visa?

Neilithicman, how are the scales treating you now?

Hi to everyone else. Keep well, stay safe.

Morning everyone

Intesha, sorry to hear about your dad’s fall. I’ve heard there are online videos of simple exercises for the elderly that are supposed to improve balance and reduce falls, perhaps that may be something he could look into when he’s feeling better after this fall?

Quacka, sorry to hear about your dad’s passing. I hope you can get on top of the reflux soon. Did you ever get a test for the H pylori bacteria I think I mentioned a few months back? My wife had really bad reflux and she turned out to have the bacteria, a course of antibiotics later and she hasn’t had issues since.

Turn, We didn’t get any snow, it was mostly in Central Otago. We just got miserable rainy cold grey weather. I’m on holiday next week and the nasty weather is supposed to continue 🙁

Anzac, more bad news, sorry to hear about your friend, this year really is going down as one I would like to wipe from the history books.

Lindsay, Sean Connery is your builder? When you offer him a cup of tea do you ask if he wants it shaken not stirred? 😉

Betsy, I only weigh myself once a week so I don’t know how the scales have been treating me yet, but my waist measurement was down by 1 cm to 87 cm (37¼ inches) so I’ve got to be happy with that. Although on my last non fast day I did have a slip and ate what seemed to be almost my own bodyweight worth of chocolate. I had a fast day yesterday and hefty gym session where I managed to run 8.6 kilometers in my 45 minute session, so hopefully that will counteract the chocolate binge.

Last day of work and then I get one week of holidays, so hopefully the weather forecast does not come true and we’ll be able to get out and about during our break.

Have a great day everyone

Cinque, I certainly enjoyed the chocolate, although I got a big energy crash the following day and regretted the decision.

Is there any truth to the rumours going round that the new coronavirus cases stemmed from some people in isolation sleeping with the security guards? They mentioned on the news last night that that was one of the possible explanations that officials were investigating.

Good afternoon all.

Sorry I’ve been MIA, life got a bit busy – it’s a long time since that’s happened. It’s going to stay busy for a couple of weeks as I have extra babysitting during the school holidays and a few more medical appointments (some I had delayed while it wasn’t safe). Not to mention my social life is starting to return to normal.

Quacka, my heartfelt sympathy for the loss of your dad. I’m thinking of you and hoping you get to spend some time with family in as you deal with your grief.

Intesha, Betsy, Anzac, well done on sticking with the plan and keeping your weight loss going even on those tough days.

Neil, it’s only a rumour, no idea if it fact or fiction. There is an investigation underway into how the community spread occurred from quarantine cases.
Hope you have a wonderful holiday and get plenty of time in the sun that you’ve been lacking lately.

Turn, I see you are staying put for a while. I hope that means there is lots of lovely scenery to explore where you are now.
That raid sounds terrifying. Vans do not provide a lot of protection. Glad you got though it safely.

Lindsay, I bet your fence builder gets tired of the questions and jokes.

Cinque, it’s very unfortunate that your daughter and grandkids will be isolated from you for a while. You may have to go back to the online chats until this latest infection is under control.

I had a call from the travel agent yesterday. My Canadian tour is now cancelled. The offer from the tour company was either a refund of my $250 deposit, or leave the money with them and they’d increase it to $400 to be used on any Globus tour within 2 years. After a short deliberation I elected to take the refund. I didn’t want to be locked into a particular travel company – especially as I hadn’t wanted to do their tour in the first place – it had just been the only one that had available places that suited my schedule. I imagine it will take a long time for the refund to come through but that’s ok.

I started my new eating plan this week and so far it’s going well, although I really had a battle yesterday to stick with a no frill NFD. I was arguing with myself for most of the morning and afternoon about whether I was actually hungry and did I really need that snack. Hopefully the NFDs will get easier. As usual the FDs are fine. Next week I have two lunches out and I’m going to have to decide in advance which will be a no frills NFD where I chose my meal very carefully and which can be my one free NFD with a bot more leeway for meal choices.

I need to get back to the housework – I’m a bit behind this week and am taking advantage of a day at home to catch up. I really needed to get the washing done, as I was down to one clean windcheater and a dwindling supply of clean underwear. Thankfully that disaster has been averted.

Have a good day all.

Morning. Nice, Betsy, to wake up to your late night post. I managed to hold off until 5.50, even though Rose started tapping at 3.30. My neighbour has sensor lights that flood the front of her house (and our bedroom, even though we have timber blinds) and wake the dog. Grrrrr. I am not sure if she leaves them on because she is nervous, or if they are super sensitive. They moved here a year ago, but the husband went straight away back to China for his business, and she is here alone with two small children. Poor girl – not much of a life.
Betsy, icecream is one of my favourites, but it’s a no no really. My blood sugar shoots up if I have one, particularly in the evenings. Good thing Lindt doesn’t have that effect.

I’ve had a few good days, and hope to get through the relatively quiet weekend.

LJ I am sure the builder has heard all the jokes – although Neil, yours was a cracker….tea shaken not stirred. He is doing a great job and Rose will need ropes and chains to scale it. We have gone taller than we expected, because after he had started, a new neighbour came over to explain they were building up the level of their back garden, which would have meant a bit less privacy for us. Not now – whoo hoo.

Love the picture of Maxx Anzac. What an expression! Rosemarie has just shot past me with the teatowel in her mouth, but if she thinks I am chasing her around the garden in the dark, she is mistaken. She’s been doing better with her come command, but not when she’s fresh up and there’s a chase game to be had. Hope the teatowel survives – I got it in Italy.

Cinque hope you are able to sort out your issue and it doesn’t cause you too much upset or pain. It’s not a good time not to be able to see people face to face.

Betsy, coming back to APA. Did you know the new APA 7 was published in October last year. Just a heads up. It’s got changes to referencing and other adjustments for more inclusive language, and for our transition to more electronic sources. I finished my Master’s thesis edit late yesterday and shot it off to her, and got an email last night saying she was still using 6. Not sure yet how we’ll resolve that.

Anzac, hurrah for a well paid job, that allows your very creative OH to escape the stresses of work and create your own private haven. A little less stress for you would be good in that mix, but it seems you two have found an ideal situation.

You probably know by now that I am gradually removing plastic from my life, where ever possible. I’ve had another great find. It’s a bar of shampoo/conditioner, from a small Australian company. I was sceptical …but have used it twice now and it is great. Yea! Another 14 plastic bottles gone, over the life of the bar (if you’re interested I’ll tell you the brand…don’t want to do a product promotion on this forum).

Happy weekend all.

Good afternoon,
Cold here, but I have had a good morning. Slept in (woot!) (You must have passed the baton LJoyce), went for a walk with the 3yo energiser bunny who lives in the flats. Didn’t wear him out, but maybe gave his parents a head start for the day 😉 , and made a batch of that yummy Nigerian stew.

And I have had a particularly wonderful midday meal, with roast veggies topped with the bean stew and a small serve of my beef and rhubarb stew too.
LJoyce, I think we are finding it similar. It really suits my constitution but I do need to have it planned well in advance!

Haha Neil, everyone else has answered your question. The Premier won’t confirm anything, saying leave it for the results of the inquiry, which almost certainly means most of the rumours are true.
Makes those two visitors driving unchecked across your country seem like small fry!
Waiting for today’s figures, but relieved we have kept to 70, + or – 10, so far. It gives me hope we can manage it quickly.

Anzac, woot! a nice half kilo gone. So excited about you getting to under 90kg. Maybe this week! Onward and downward. You deserve it.
Ooh that picture of Maxx, do give him a big hug from me.

Once Mr A has finished with your home, I bet there are community groups who would appreciate his skills, if he was able to volunteer them. (I would love to get him on board for designing YamDaisy Cafes! But that project is in hibernation at the moment).

We had a good natter about our tricky family member on zoom. I was just about to write ‘families, who’d have them!’ when I remembered it was my lovely sisters doing family best, who both brought up the issue, and dealt with it. So hooray for families.

LJoyce, good news that you are being nicely busy and social again. And that your eating plan is working well so far. About time. I do hope it continues, you deserve a good run.

Hi Betsy, don’t we walk briskly in this cold! I bet you went a good way in 55 mins!
Giving up icecream for a good while is such a nurturing and kind gift to yourself. It will help you lose weight, have less pain, avoid statins, look even more gorgeous, be so comfortable in your clothes, sleep better, live better. I hope you can delight in it.
I bet you get yourself a wonderful menu sorted.

Lindsay, oh dear re those security lights. I’d guess they are super sensitive… they always are!
Well done with that shampoo bar! I have been meaning to try one, so I would like to know your recommended brand.

I’m going to make eggplant dip (eggplants and tahini both needing to be used) but it is soup for dinner and a fast day tomorrow so it can sit in the fridge, developing its flavours, til Monday. When I might eat the whole batch 😉

Thin, are you stuck in the Nevernever somewhere?

Cheers everyone, best wishes for a wonderful healthy weekend. No icecream for anyone. Except maybe Penguin. Haha, bye now.

It seems a while since my last post. I’ve just read them all in reverse order and that’s taken me so long that I’m getting tired, ready for bed now. So I’ll probably forget most of what I wanted to say as usual.

Cinque, Betsy, sorry to have read in the news about Melbourne’s lock-down. With the numbers relatively low, and a good track and trace system, it should be easy to keep on top of it. We’ve had our first city (Leicester) placed back in lock-down as the rest of the country turned out today for haircuts and pints – not us.

CalifD, we’re like you, not keen to go anywhere. I still get anxious in the grocery stores. I don’t know where anything is, am still unfamiliar with the products and don’t even care about prices any more. I just try and get in and out as fast as possible while dodging people who still don’t know the difference between six inches and six feet.

LJ, good news that you got your refund (or will get it). I was wondering how they could not have given it if Australians can’t leave the country.

Anzac, nice Maxx photo. And good to read that you’re doing well with your food choices.

Quacka, so sorry to read about your dad’s passing. Beautifully put that ‘now the pain is all ours’. I hope that pain turns to happy memories soon.

Neil, how nice to have another holiday. Sorry it’s so cold. Those local farmers’ markets sound great.

Turn, what a scary set of events right outside your door. Once when we were camping in WA, we had the SAS (or similar) blasting through the camp in the middle of the night looking for escaped prisoners. A little difficult to get back to sleep!

Lindsay, well done for removing plastic from your life. I try to remove it from the canal but I’m currently on a mission to get the Canal and River Trust to educate the Great British Public about the perils of feeding bread to wildfowl.

Hire boats and boaters who don’t live aboard were allowed out to play today for the first time in three-four months. During lock-down, we’d exchange a wave through the porthole with other boaters when one would pass every few days or so. Today, I’d say about thirty boats passed and I realised the practice would have to stop.

Thanks to all who commented/asked about OH’s visa thing. It’s complicated – because there isn’t a visa for what we want to do. No, nothing is automatically granted based on marriage to a British Citizen. Most spousal visas applications are denied which is disconcerting since it costs upwards of £3k to apply. As Lindsay said, it’s unfairly slanted against men. This was not the visa we wanted anyway but may be the best choice now – although under normal circumstances, one has to apply from outside Britain so it could be denied on that basis too. Betsy, yes we did know that standard visitor visas were only valid for six months at a time and planned to go to Europe for a couple of months in between (as we did in Jan/Feb). We didn’t, of course, anticipate covid and all the travel uncertainty it would create. Sorry, that was much too long a ramble, but the uncertainty is starting to spoil our time here.

Anyway, FD tomorrow. All is well on that front at least. I have something in the freezer, can’t remember what, and OH will have pork chops.

Penguin, hope you’re going well.

Take care everyone.

A quick hi to unfortunately report that I am laid up with a very painful lower abdomen problem. I went to the hairdresser yesterday and I always like to walk as it is a lovely walk, about 40 mins, and i need the exercise. Mr A and Maxx walked over with me. As we started out I felt some pain but shrugged it off. Long story short, by the time I was walking home by myself I was bent over with an awful, localised pain.

Doctor said it could be one of many things and sent me home with a referral for a CT scan tomorrow and instructions to monitor the pain and if it increases to go to the hospital. Thankfully it is not as sore today so avoided that.

Anyway I mustn’t move more than necessary so stuck on the couch with my legs up and the heater on. I’m actually having a big catch up with work as it is taking my mind off it. Poor Mr A is on dog duty, cooking duty, grocery shopping duty (for us and my Dad), housework duty etc. He makes this amazing chicken and vege soup from scratch, including bone broth. I won’t eat it because it has chunks of all the veges I dislike. So the dear man took the pieces of shredded chicken out, blended the rest, and put the chicken back in. It was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten! My Dad raves about it all the time and poor Mr A seems to be constantly cooking chicken soup all through winter. Now he has a new problem: me! I’ve just had a second bowl and it’s like healing fluid

Please send positive thoughts that it all turns out to be nothing

Sorry, all about me again. Will post more cheerily later today or tomorrow

Anzac, our posts crossed. Wishing you a very speedy recovery.