Yay Neil,
You made July yours! And August will be too. It is the fine tweaking this end that is the trick. (As I am learning ).

Lindsay, I do hope you had a wonderful day with family yesterday.

Thankyou for your sympathy, it was just devastating to see those numbers yesterday. It was so nice to think the 500+ day was our turning point, but no, averaging about 500 every day now, so fingers crossed for today.

It was awful to hear about those young girls being so stupid and dangerous to everyone. A nightmare for Qld. (And to Anzac’s sister among others). All my wishes that it doesn’t spark into spotfires.

Covid seems to be creeping into our regions now. What an insidious disease it is.

And dear Anzac. My heart goes out to you, especially to OH and to the family of the man who died. My brother killed himself when he was only 30 and it was very much wrapped up with business worries. I know how it rips the sky apart.

I am so glad you looked after yourself yesterday with a good fast day, and best wishes for a gentle day today.

I did sit in the sun yesterday. Joking that Melbourne’s winter works to make us feel that 15c is tshirt weather. 16c today, and 17 tomorrow! I will have a tan!

Cali, so glad to see your post. We just need to hear from Betsy now! (Intesha and Quacka, too!)

I hope you got a lovely sleep and wake refreshed. Happy fast day!

Is the covid news for your area is settling? Sydney is on a knife edge here, fingers crossed it doesn’t continue to follow Victoria’s pattern. It has become clear here that the big, maybe the biggest, danger is the low paid, casualised workforce that means people cannot afford to isolate. Hopefully ‘pandemic leave’ payment will be introduced soon. We need to keep our struggling workers safe, to keep us all safe.

We have had a few people here jack up about masks, with the most famous example being retold here Aussie bush poet style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQkl7-0RjDw (the guy who did the dunny roll ballad). It is much more of a fringe issue here than it is in the US, thank goodness.

Best wishes all

A big thank you for your warm welcome to the group. Thank you Cinque for the link to the recipes – much appreciated!
Well I successfully completed 2 fasting days and I have to say, it was completely fine. On both days, I didn’t eat anything until around 3pm and in future, I might try and push that out to dinner time so I can have a ‘normal’ meal with my husband.
Soup does indeed seem to be a great option that is quick, full of veg and low in calories. Thanks for the suggestion Neil 😉 I think that will be my go to when breaking fast (if I can’t make it to dinner) and then cook up a 300cal meal for dinner.
I’ve had a slight headache both fasting days which perhaps is normal in the beginning.
Have a great weekend all!

Good evening everyone.

Thank you to Neilithicman and LindsayL for checking where I was. MIA definitely, plus so COLD – unfortunately my foray into the 67s didn’t last long, as I overate for a few days when I just felt constantly cold, even well-rugged up and the heater on. Seem to have come out the other side of that now, but am back at 69kg. Oh well, it’s all down from here, and as the weather should start warming up soon (though you never know, with Melbourne weather), I should be more able to sustain the reduced calories.

Beautiful flowers, Cinque, especially the tree, for Penguin. And, very clever knitting for miss 3 (soon to be 4). I was colour matched as a summer many moons ago, but I think over time I have moved more into the winter colours. A lot of the paler pastels don’t suit my complexion now. My favourite colour to wear is blue, though, but not sky blue, I prefer a deeper royal blue shade, or a smoky gray-blue. Red is good too, but it has to be the blue-red, not the orange-red which better suits those who are autumns.

Penguin, so glad you’re doing okay on the chemo so far and have avoided the more nasty side effects.

Thin, well done for getting through the locks. Pain about the tour boat mooring right next to you. Ouch re OH’s application – do you get any of that back if the application is refused. Seems awfully expensive.

GDayfromSA, good to hear from you. You’ll have to let us know how your courses go. Pity about the nutrition one, but fortunate that you read the fine print. And wow! Well done for getting through the 60-hour fast, with weight loss benefits attached. What meter did you get that measures both glucose and ketones? Is it one where you have to regularly prick your finger, or a urine test?

LindsayL, hope you get the bees for your SIL. Seems like Rosy is just like her littermates. I was initially confused by the AI, as I immediately thought of artificial intelligence, but clicked in after that.

Anzac65, how sad about OH’s friend. Wistful photo of your Maxx.

Helen Kate, you’re going really well. Keep up the good work. So many people here have such great advice to offer.

Neilithicman, hope the weigh-in on your own scales showed you below that vexed 90.

CalifDreamer, good to hear from you. Yours and others’ description of migraine symptoms are scary. Thankful not to be a sufferer.
Yes, the numbers of Covid-19 cases in Victoria are much higher than anyone wants. Mask-wearing has been mandatory in Melbourne for several days now. Some naysayers are objecting, and coping $200 fines. Their problem! From Sunday, mask-wearing outside the home will be required of all Victorians, though there are some specific instances where masks don’t have to be worn – when doing strenuous exercise such as running, or if a person has a medical exemption, for instance.

Mandyclogs, welcome to the group. You’ve made a good start. Setting regular FDs is very helpful to establish consistency.

LJoyce, yes, the obesity figures for the UK are poor, just behind the US, which I think has the highest rate of obesity in the world. I think Australia is running at 5th highest, which is still appalling. As a child (1950s), I remember there being very few children who were overweight. How things have changed. And with Covid-19, the medical outcome for the obese is much worse than for people of normal weight, which has been one of my drivers this year in being determined to get down to a BMI of less than 25. Not there yet, but at least no longer over 30.

Quacka, good to read that you’ve been back onto the fasting trail. I’ve been interested in all the comments about not refrigerating bananas – I’ve always been told that it’s not a problem to put them in the fridge for a few days to make them last longer, that the skin will go a brown colour, but it doesn’t affect the fruit itself. I don’t do it often. The slightly green bananas that LJoyce prefers are much better for you as they have a low GI (glycaemic index). The riper a banana is, the higher its GI and the more likely that it will provoke a blood glucose spike.

I think I’ve actually caught up. Couldn’t comment on everything everyone wrote, but most. August is a new month, and I am determined that there will be less of me by the end of it!! 🙂

Have a good weekend!

Hello everyone. I seem to be continually apologising for being absent for a few days. I try to keep up with posts, but fell behind the last couple of days. I’m mostly caught up now.

It’s a lovely sunny day here in Adelaide and I’m looking forward to a walk shortly. I was meant to be walking with a friend but she has an upset tummy and is worried about being infectious – and being too far from home!

Mandyclogs, welcome. I hope you are settling into the FD routine.

HK, hope you are still going well in your second week. Are you heading in to the Botanic gardens for another walk given the beautiful winter weather we are having at the moment.
I was sorry to hear about your recent chemo. I hope the treatment has been completely successful for you.

GDSA, congrats on that very long water fast. I did them a few times decades ago, but am not tempted to repeat that spartan regime. I hope it provided the reset that you were looking for.

Neil, how wonderful to see the 80s again – although I don’t miss the fashion!

Turn, the kidney stone sounded very unpleasant. I hope there is no recurrence.
Glad that you at least have some warm weather even if the sun is playing hide and seek.

CaliD, I’m very glad you are continuing your downhill trend too. I’m sure the never ending need to isolate is not helping matters for you.

Cinque, did you make it to the shops for more coffee beans?
How are infection rates in your area? Are the outbreaks still in suburb pockets or is it widely spread now? I see the daily numbers but it doesn’t usually say much about where the infection rate is growing.

Anzac, so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. I hope our hubby is coping.
Sorry also to hear about your UTI. I used to get them often and in between had a lot of irritation. My GP put me on a cranberry extract capsule daily as there is published research showing this reduces the rate if UTIs for women. It does not treat an existing UTI (you need antibiotics for that), but taken daily it has been shown to reduce the number of UTIs in women (interestingly the research also showed that it doesn’t have that effect in men). I’ve been taking it for several years and not only has is stopped the almost constant irritation, I only get an infection every few years, rather than weeks or months. This is the brand I take – Australian made by a company I trust – https://imgur.com/undefined I ran out of capsules last year and decided to see if I really still needed it. Within 3 days, the irritation was back. Needless to say I have resumed taking the capsules and have had no irritation or infections since.

Betsy, The cold days are such a challenge aren’t they. I most struggle then too. I have no doubt at all that you will get your weight loss going again. You have shown so much determination in recent months and I know you can get back into that rhythm.

Thin, I agree with the other comments, that is an expensive visa. I assume it’s meat to serve as a deterrent to those with little chance of being approved.

Lindsay, Did you get the editing finished my yesterday’s deadline? Do you have a continuing stream of phD/Masters students whose theses you need to edit?
The family picnic in the park sounded like a lovely idea. I saw a few people doing that yesterday when I went for a walk before lunch (one group had even set a hammock between 2 trees). I felt quite envious that they were having lunch out there when I was about to be stuck inside a restaurant.

Penguin, glad to hear that the chemo is still being kind to you. Hope the big house move is going well. Are you able to have an agent show prospective buyers around during the current restrictions?

On the subject of migraines, I have had them occasionally since my teenage years. About a decade ago they increased in frequency and at their worst were 2-3 per week. While I can use Imigran tablets to mitigate the worst of the symptoms, I needed a preventative solution if possible. Mine were always preceded by neck pain and stiffness (sometimes also shoulder stiffness), so I decided to see if physio treatment would help. My usual physio tried, but it made no difference so I decided to look further afield. There are physio neck and skull treatments specifically for migraines. It’s not part of their basic training but I believe there is a course run in Brisbane for physios which covers this. I found 3 physios in Adelaide who had this specialty – although all were very popular and hard to get into. Ten years later I’m still with the physio I chose for this. He provided a manipulation therapy for the neck and skull, massage on the shoulders and he also gave me exercises to do several times a day to help me build up the strength in my neck muscles as better support for the weight of our head was part of the solution. I also have a pressure technique I can apply with my finger tips which can release a lot of the tension that builds up in my neck. The frequency of the migraines gradually reduced back to their old rate of 2-3 a year and they are even rarer now I’ve retired and am not spending my days in front of a computer screen.

As many of you have said, I too had my colours done in the 80s. I am a spring-summer. (I actually crossed the boundaries.) It means that anything on the colour wheel from violet around to blue-green suits me, but nothing in the red-orange-yellow palette does. It worked out well as my favourite. My best basics are navy and grey and I look appalling in black or brown (no wonder I hated my school uniform). However many of the pastels from the summer palette, including the pinks suit me very well. There is no shade of blue that I cannot wear, although I actually prefer the purples and the blue-greens.
My ex-husband also had his done, which made clothes shopping for him much easier. He was a spring-winter (I think it was the combination of dark red hair but pale skin with a pink rather than peach undertone. We focused on getting him kitted out with dark navy and charcoal business suits (from the winter palette) after than – they looked so much better than the brown and light grey he had been choosing before.

I had a big success yesterday. My niece’s youngest turned 18 last week (yes it involved me producing yet another cake – he wanted red velvet too – https://imgur.com/a/HIBzt86 ). There was a family restaurant lunch yesterday. My first meal out during my new low cal blitz. I chose my meal wisely and even more pleasingly I didn’t then overeat during the rest of the day – something that has happened too often in recent months in similar circumstances. I’m so pleased to have broken that pattern. Although there was a bit of internal argument going on about food all afternoon – my stronger self won that battle for a change.
I am currently down to 78.4kg and have been hovering around there for a few days. Hopefully by the end of this week I will finally be back inside my preferred 75-78 range. Similarly to Neil, I’ll then face the next challenge of getting to the bottom of that range, which is where I feel most comfortable and a bit more relaxed about food and slight weight fluctuations.

FD for me. I have a tray of lovely veg that I roasted lightly on Friday. I will finish them off in the airfryer for dinner tonight.

I’m hoping that’s caught me up on the posts for the last 2 pages. If I’ve missed anyone, sorry. Hope you are going well. It’s taken me 2 hours to write this so I suspect there will be some overlapping posts.

Have a lovely Sunday all.

Hello everyone, I do enjoy reading the bulletins from everyone, and getting to hear the good news and the bad. Sad to hear about Anzac’s husband’s friend and about the past grief of your brother’s death Cinque. I know from the experiences of people close to me how devastating that is.
And Cinque I am sorry that things continue to be difficult in Victoria. Let’s hope the Stage 4 lock-down improves things quickly.
LJoyce, I have indeed been to the Botanic Gardens today and it was heavenly there. Blue sky and sunshine, and the wattles are out. I hope you enjoy your walk – am sure you will. Perhaps we can meet in the Gardens one day, or else by the beach where you live.
I turn 71 this coming Tuesday. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer 4 years ago I felt I would be glad to make it to 70, but here I am, healthy and happy! After two weeks on the 2:5 I can see that my stomach is a bit flatter and that is very pleasing. I haven’t measured or weighed, will wait a bit longer before doing that. What is pleasing me most of all is that I feel as if I’ve got back a sense of control around food, and am more inclined, on NFDs, to stop eating when I am full – basic stuff I know, but it is easy to go on eating just for the pleasure of it! And I feel as if I am enjoying my food more than ever.
I am following the advice given by people here – yesterday I didn’t eat until 2pm and mostly I stuck to vegetable soup, spiced up with a bit of tom yum paste. It didn’t feel too hard.
All the best to everyone
HK

Thanks Thin – we have never met but you just called me racist.

Our Police are racist.

OK Thin, I’ll buy that. It was probably the fact that the words were in brackets at the end that made them look like a personal opinion. My apologies for misjudging you. I will also accept the fact that there are too many racist cops, I just resent the assumption that all are.

Morning all.

Cinque, Betsy, shocked by what is happening in Victoria with Covid numbers, and hope you are both okay…and this Level 4 lockdown does its job.

We have just had a few cases of community transmission so far since the happy wanderers decided to go to Melbourne to allegedly steal designer handbags and party (My OH wondered if they held a handbag party, like the Tupperware parties of old). And no, it’s not at all funny, despite his joke. A family friend, a young woman with little children, is deputy of the nursing home where a nurse who was at the same restaurant as the Melbourne party-goers has tested positive. The nursing home is in lockdown and the young woman is trying to run the place (director is 70 and because of chronic health issues is fearful of working), deal with media and working 16 hour shifts….and they’ll decide today if she needs to be in lockdown too.

Cinque I was so sorry to read of your losing your brother. So young, and so very very sad. I just can’t imagine the pain.

Anzac I was also sorry to hear of the loss of your OH’s friend. It’s good you are wfh, just to be there with your OH when he needs you.

Neil good work on the weekend. I haven’t weighed this morning because Miss Rose was quite insistent I let her in. But it won’t be good anyway. I am cranky as, this morning. We were due to have lunch with my friend and husband yesterday. We’d chosen a Thai restaurant, but I know the menu and knew it had good options. Open air too, so safe, and and they do all the right things. Then she changed her mind because of the Covid situation, and asked us to her home for an early dinner. Fine. But then she asked two other couples. Not fine. I don’t want to socialise at the moment, even though they are all old friends. And then the meal! A real dinner party menu – I’ll leave it at that. Then Rosy went ballistic when we got home, so we watched tv for an hour while she settled down, and I’ve woken this morning feeling tired and bloated ….grrrrr. (do I sound ungrateful?)

My day with my family, on the other hand, was delightful. In a park by the river, we took our own food, and I made Anzac biscuits to share ….but with olive oil instead of butter, for one vegan brother and wife. They took a bit of juggling to get the consistency right, but tasted fabulous (and I only had a small one).

On Turn …a kidney stone! That must have been exquisitely painful. Hope you’ve recovered. Ditto Anzac. Dr LJ is right about the preventative cranberry. Aren’t fruits fabulous? I give OH black cherry juice (no added sugar) which is meant to deal with uric acid. My GP laughed at me when I told him, until I said I’d read a study in the New England Medical Journal. Ha! He then observed that most doctors know next to nothing about nutrition, having only had a passing exposure to it during their studies.

Betsy, I like the idea of rosy having artificial intelligence …but no, its the method of her conception. Her sire’s semen has gone to Europe and the States too. He was a magnificent dog, and still missed by his owner.

LJ I’m not sure where this editing is taking me. This is the work I used to do (but in sections, not whole dissertations) when I had a job, pre Covid. I’d been consulting with the first PhD for a long time, then reluctantly agreed to edit his dissertation. I’d also been helping a staff lecturer (non native English speaker) whose students struggled to understand his accent, with pronunciation and delivery strategies. He recommended me to the master’s student, and her supervisor then recommended me to this current PhD. So, to answer your question, I don’t know. I quite like the work, and it’s unlikely there’ll be work in my old job until at least 2021, so I’ll see if there’s any demand. (and yes, I met the deadline…..just).

HelenKate, you seem to be slipping into this way of life quite naturally. Best wishes for your FDs this week (and your NFDs too, of course).

Safe day all.

Hello Southern Hemispherites!
We are so lucky to live in ANZ – a shame about the people whose education clearly wasn’t up to par in science… conspiracists will kill us all if we can’t keep them in the real world!
I’m starting again.
I lost 15kgs about 4-5years ago but LIFE came along & I’ve regained it all plus some (the last few kilos courtesy of Covid-19 – no “coronas” for that!). Droughts, bushfires, floods, my sister suicided a year ago (and officially mourning can stop – never, in reality and its time for me to rejig my brain to move forward), and huge job traumas 12-18months ago.
So, here I go again.
I like the idea of a 6-8hrs “window of eating” (somehow, its wrong that the acronym works out to be WOE when it is exactly the opposite!) but my challenge is working night-shifts (which are fine & I can manage because I am always flat out busy at work), then having to adjust back to the daylight for my days off.
Not so many tradesmen are available to visit at 2am & I suspect the neighbours would complain anyway.
Does anyone have any tips please?
I’m really bad at all this online stuff – it seems to take up so much time! but I recall that it was good to at least look at what everyone else was saying when I was joining in back in the day.
Please, everyone, mask up – stay safe & well, and enjoy your day!

The quickest of posts to say YES, Rosy did come Anzac and behaved perfectly, apart from just about breaking out of her harness when she tried to chase some pigeons. Funny, she walks for me too. I remember from our old training school days that we walked the dogs on the left, lead held loosely across our bodies in our right hand. That really works with me …but OH has her running ahead, behind, across his path. I often think it’s OH that needs the training, not Rosy ( think I’ve said that before).

CAnnbewarra Welcome to the forum. You’ve had some tough times – and losing a sister must have been the hardest of them all. You’ll find good companionship here on the forum, and being a diverse bunch of mixed ages and experiences, we all have different perspectives to contribute. Nice to know you.

Anzac, I love that picture! You are beautiful! I loved that era ….big hair, and best of all, big shoulder pads. The broader the shoulders, the narrower the waist (haha).

So sorry Cinque you are missing DD’s birthday celebrations …. may next year be better.

Night all – back to the dreaded you-know-what.

Cinque, so sorry you can’t be with your DD on her birthday. Personally, having watched all the goings on around the world with the lock-down breeches, I’d have probably been tempted to make a judgment call that dropping a dinner off 1km further away than the prescribed 5km could not put a single soul at risk. Kudos to you for sticking to the rules though. And what a shame it’s come to this. You are so funny – survived the curfew! Welcome to Cinque’s life, Victoria.

CAnnbewarra, I remember your name, welcome back. Sorry to hear of all the bad times you’ve been experiencing. This group will help you get back on track. Wishing you happier times ahead.

Anzac, what a beautiful photo! And such a lovely dress. You look very happy.

Neil, sounds like a good weekend’s eating.

Lindsay, I would have felt exactly the same about the meal at your friend’s place. But a nice family gathering to make up for it where everyone knows the rules. I’m wondering when I will ever see DD again. She would drive two hours to meet us but we could only sit outside and she says it would be pointless if she couldn’t give us both a big hug – no different from Whatsapp.

The risk was brought home last week when DD’s on call partner returned from a farm visit to receive a phone call from the client saying he’d just received the news that he’d tested positive for covid. The colleague’s car had broken down at the farm so DD had gone out to pick him up in hers. All OK as it turned out.

Penguin, I thought you’d be used to my sarcastic cynicism by now but, yes, I see how that could have been interpreted differently.

CalifD, we have just collected our parcels from the Amazon hub locker thingy. I must say, that all went very smoothly with a lot of helpful tracking information along the way. Delivered within 24 hours. We enjoyed ‘Midway’ and I am just trying out the Prime music streaming. But I’m not getting that Alexa thing even if it is free!

Mmmm, back with a lovely pot of coffee,

Lindsay I leapfrogged your post yesterday, and didn’t get back to acknowledge it. Thanks for your good wishes for us under our stage 4 lockdown. The hits on business are the hard news today, I do hope they get the govt support to help them through so they can survive and be ready for the recovery on the other side.

Oh dear, what a pity your nice Thai dinner was replaced with a less healthy eating option. Isn’t it amazing how we feel the effects, tired and bloated, so much more once we haven’t eaten like that for a while. I hope you are feeling chipper today.
A lovely family picnic to balance it out.
I do hope the scales were considerate, when you finally got onto them.

Anzac, spring is on its way here, but has been hijacked by blizzard. Well, light snow in places anyway.
We will get round to that birthday meal, belatedly, so I mustn’t lose the planning I have done. In 6 weeks hopefully, and I might even be able to eat it with them then.
Poor OH, I do hope his ankle is recovering. Cruel, when he was being so careful.
Well, your long weekend must be over. I hope you have some nice projects this week, and remember to have breaks and stretch every twenty minutes!

LJoyce, is it freezing in Adelaide today? (Crisp birthday HK!)
My grandchildren are way too feral, I’m laughing at the thought of trying to facetime them during a meal. We have to do it in a quiet time with a timer so they can take turns shrieking at me. Haha. But I will have a nice chat to my daughter sometime through the day.
I love how you managed it with your best friend’s family! Especially eating breakfast and dinner in company.

Thin, you are a rebel at heart! Unfortunately it was all the breaches that got us into this trouble in the first place, so I am on model behaviour and hoping that enough other people will be too, so that the police out on the streets can deal with the ones who do try and push the boundaries.
Mind you, I thought I was the rebel type, yet I am really nervous about going to pick up my new glasses from the College of Optometry near Melbourne Uni, even though I rang and checked it was okay, and they are within my 5km radius.

I’ve finished my lovely coffee and I’ve got a big list of things to do today, so off I go to do as many of them as I can. It is a precious day, let’s be covidsafe and good to ourselves.

Best wishes all, but I have something to say to Penguin: I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hampster, and your father smelt of elderberries!

Bye all

Good afternoon all

Happy Birthday HK!

Happy PJ hunting LJ. We have the loveliest PJ’s (matching) that we were given when we flew first class with Emirates last year. The material is supposedly able to moisturise your skin. We are already loaded up with more Frequent Flyer points so by the time we can travel overseas again we might even have enough to do first class again. Whoo hoo!

Cinque, I do love Holy Grail. It’s my favourite Monty Python film. I didn’t get to do many of my to-do list on the weekend as I was too busy doing everything else while OH was laid up with his crook foot. I didn’t mind and I even had a few hours of reading on Sunday as I was feeling lazy. I did clean and polish my dressing table and the two side-tables next to the bed as they were very dusty. Tick.

FD today and needed as I did overindulge AGAIN on the weekend.

Thanks Thin, we did have a happy day despite one of my bridesmaids turning feral. She did everything in her power to ruin my day – and sadly it is normally the first thing I remember when I look back. However I push that aside and remember all the lovely things that went well instead. No, she is no longer a friend. I tried to talk to her about it afterwards and she would giggle and change the subject. Cow

I’d love to see your fringe LJ – any chance of posting it? I totally understand if not.

Lindsay, one of the most often repeated statements on the labrador forum is ‘OH is harder to train than the dog’. I totally agree! So glad Rosy was mostly well behaved at the picnic

I have to dial into yet another meeting so I will pause now and try to come back later.

Cinque, I am back to say your salutation to Penguin had me falling off the chair. Feral comes to mind, again. (Yes, I do think Penguin will be a Monty Python fan).

And Anzac, there’s that feral word yet again. Cow, indeed.

Good luck with the PJs LJ. Not a fan myself – but DD bought OH and me some super cute flannelette pants this year, and I pop a long sleeved T on, and am as cosy as.

OH has Zoom meetings with his Literature in Context class on Mondays, and can often be seen in his nicely dressed upper half, and his PJ pants and slippers on the bottom out of sight (I hope). Reminds me of my days in television, when often the newsreaders would sit at the desk in beautiful shirts, ties and jackets, with the shirts hanging over shorts and thongs or bare feet.
I remember one newsreader who wore calipers after suffering polio as a child. He was reading the news one night when the one of the floor crew crawled under the news desk and unscrewed them. The reader got 10 out of 10 for composure – he didn’t miss a beat.

Those days are long gone – particularly as now many stand to read.

Anzac,I don’t suppose your lab forum friends have any comments about when setters mature. I asked on the setter FB forum – and all I got were comments like ‘never’, ‘about ten’, ‘the week before they leave you’, and so on. Not reassuring. But I do see signs of change. When she pinches something now, we don’t chase her and she comes back inside, ready for the game. We hold out something she wants, and say ‘swap Rose’, and surprise surprise she often does. (A tip from the breeder). That said, I haven’t seen my hot water bottle in a while.

Happy Birthday HK.

Cinque, last night we watched an episode of Endeavour that I hadn’t seen before. The murder occurred on a towpath with another death on a narrow boat. All located in places we’ve been so quite topical for us. Not sure if it’s a new series, or one I missed from the others.

Cinque, apologies, that did sound like an irresponsible comment – evidently I’m not good at making points in writing and will have to stop trying. I just meant that, within the understanding of what the authorities are trying to achieve and how the virus is spread, common sense can be applied. I missed your MP comment to Penguin and can’t find it.

I’d be more concerned about collecting the glasses. While getting our Amazon delivery yesterday, we went to the supermarket. I was totally freaked out by the end of it. Despite the law, two thoughtless young women without masks pushed right past OH. Not being enforced. Two other women barged in front of me as I waited 6ft behind the person ahead of me for veggies. Apparently, being polite about getting in someone’s space negates the need for social distancing. “Sorry!” one of them said as she cut in between us. Aware but don’t care.

Then, incredibly two young thickos were fishing right outside our boat last evening. Miles of canal, yet they chose to set up next to the canvas cratch cover. OH asked if they’d mind moving 6 feet away from the boat and they said they would (mind, not move).

Anzac, what a horrible friend to try to ruin your big day. Sounds a bit jealous? Not surprised she’s no longer your friend.

Lindsay, Miss Four is so funny.

CalifD, yes, the vets all wear masks. I was wondering why the client had allowed them to come out at all, having been tested two days earlier and awaiting results. Apparently, he’d been part of a random study and had no symptoms at all. Even more to worry about. Now we have a potential test that can deliver results within 90 minutes, that’ll help a lot.

Morning all.

Lindsay, what the hell has your granddaughter been watching to get notions like that? I got funny looks at work because I snorted out loud reading your post 😀

Thin, there are certainly a lot of “covidiots” out there and it sounds like you’re meeting your fair share of them at the moment.

Betsy, stocking up on meat for you as well as your cat is a very good idea (if you eat meat) Over here when we had our lockdown because the vegetable markets and butchers were closed and the only place that was allowed to open was large chain supermarkets, they all price gouged and put their prices up hugely. I went from spending $200 on a shopping trip to $450 and meat was probably the biggest increase. Even the cheaper cuts of beef were selling for over $30/kilo

Good to hear from you again Cali, I hope you had a good fast day

Anzac, that sucks that your friend made trouble at your wedding. The only issues we had at ours was that it was really cold, despite being halfway through December in what is supposed to be summer, so we’re not as smiley in our wedding photos as we would otherwise be.

Cinque, Go boil your bottom you son of a silly person. Now go away or I will taunt you a second time!

Ljoyce, good luck on the PJ hunting. I just bought my 12 year-old some more pyjamas because he’s grown 6 inches in the last year and doesn’t fit any of his at the moment. He decided on a Chewbacca onesie with a hood 😀 😀 😀

I had my regular Wednesday weigh-in and I was back up to 90 kilos, It can’t be fat because it’s only been 5 days since my last weigh in and as I said in my last post, I had a decent eating weekend followed by a Monday fast. I’m not too upset, I’m resigned to the notion that with my increased muscle mass I’m likely to be hovering around this weight rather than the mid 80s I was hoping to get to.

Well have a good day everyone

Hello all from a much colder Sydney. Still lovely and sunny but not for long. We are getting hit with a serious weather event from Friday to Monday making for a soggy, cold weekend. Boo

I am very glad I’m WFH Neil as I also snorted loudly when I read Linsday’s Miss 4 comments. She must be marvellous to be around!

I had a wobble on my FD last night so it ended up about 900 calories. Still very much below my TDEE and BMR. The scales shot up 700g this morning! They are showing low battery so I’ve changed them now so lets see if it swings back tomorrow. I’m also still having tummy issues so perhaps it is something to do with that. I will find out in a couple of weeks when I get the colonoscopy and gastroscopy results

I saw the temps in Melbourne on the news and it is cold down there for sure Betsy and Cinque. Brrrr. It’s heading up here soon and I’m not looking forward to it. Stay warm

Good luck catching up on your study tasks Betsy. It all sounds quite stressful but I hated school and studying and the thought of doing it now fills me with dread. I start the colonoscopy prep on Wednesday next week and I didn’t like the sound of what you have to drink. It says if it makes you nauseous to drink it slowly. Ugh. I am very much looking forward to it all being over next Friday. I go in at 2.00pm and OH will pick me up about 4 hours later apparently. Lucky he didn’t hurt his foot next week as I would have been in a pickle.

I’m sorry for your unseasonable weather on your wedding day Neil. We picked October so it wouldn’t be too hot but it was over 30 degrees anyway. I also prayed for sunshine which I got in spades but it was also blowing a gale! I had a really long veil and it whipped up and around my head when I walked out to the cars.

There are so many covidiots out there Thin. Your supermarket experience sounds awful. Victoria just announced another 725 cases and 15 deaths – with one being in his 30’s. Hopefully these numbers will now go down very quickly due to the harsh lockdown.

Thanks all for the nice words about my wedding photo.

I hope you can get some reserve cat food for little Miso Cinque. And I hope you can get your own supplies but I’m worried that the panic buying will mean you and Betsy might struggle. There is one lady in Melbourne on the Labrador Friends forum and she had a baby just 4 days ago and said she went to the supermarket and there was barely any meat and no nappies.

Glad your FD went well Cali and you are safe and well over there in California

Hope you are ok Penguin and laughing away at Cinque and Neil’s insults. I know I am! I took this cute pic of Maxx and thought I would post it and make you smile I hope 🙂

http://imgur.com/gallery/IMtBFkU

I lost 400gr from my FD yesterday, so I’m happy about that. I hope I didn’t gain any of it back today.

Cinque, I hope you found food for Miso and whatever you needed before the lockdown. Sorry to hear that you’re having such cold weather. I am perfectly willing to send 10c of our 37-38 temps for the past week over to you. At least with the days getting a bit shorter, it cools down a little earlier.

Thin, neither of those movies you suggested are included on our Amazon Prime here, or on Netflix or other streaming services. They can be purchased for $3.99 though. That one movie is from 2013 so can’t understand why there should be a charge. We are seeing more and more of that on streaming. We just paid $19.99 for each of 2 seasons of “Yosemite” a series with 8 episodes for Season 1 and 10 episodes for Season 2. We had seen previews and figured that for 3 people, tickets to see a movie in a movie house would have been more than a whole season of 8-10 hours. And it’s not like we’re spending money going out these days. We ended up watching both seasons in less than 2 weeks! Luckily the 3rd season is free on our regular streaming service. The show is very good, but parts are quite violent.

Anzac, my weight can take wild swings overnight just like your 700g gain. I sometimes lose a kg on a FD. It has to be mostly water weight, but it can be so annoying. I love that photo of Maxx. Such a soulful look!

Neil, that was really a huge increase in grocery prices during your lockdown. Hopefully they are now back to normal. Ours have slowly increased, but not to that extent.

Penguin, anxious to hear how your house hunting and move are going. Hope you are still not noticing too many effects from the chemo.

I’ve just realised that I missed many posts because for some reason they stopped being forwarded to my email so this is just a quick message to say thank you for al the warm birthday wishes – and such a lovely bunch of flowers, Cinque.
Some good tales and laughs on my quick read through just now.
All the best to everyone
Helen Kate

Good morning,

Yes Brrr! Waiting for some warmer weather. Waiting, waiting.
-4 in Canberra right now. Are you rugged up CAnnbewarra?
Yes do send 10C over Cali! Ooh it would bump it up nicely.

Thanks for the consideration, everyone, for me and my cat. We would be fine even if all the essential shops weren’t open. I have a very old fashioned way of storing food, so I think I could live on fridge, freezer, pantry and garden for about six months if I had to (but wouldn’t I miss my coffee).
Inspite of assurances that there will be enough meat for everyone, the panic buy is on, so I will have to wait for that to settle down. Luckily I have frozen chicken, frozen mince, eggs, beans and lentils, yuba and tinned kippers to keep me in protein! Haha. I’m ridiculously privileged.
Miso the cat has about 3kg of dried food and half a dozen packets of Whiskas to work through. She thinks like Wilbur, Betsy, and is fat as a seal. I am trying to be stricter inspite of her desperate melting eyes.

Anzac, pay no attention to the scales. I think you are right that it may be responding to the inflammation, that is giving you pain. Otherwise it is just spite.

Helen Kate, I am glad you found your flowers and all the good wishes we sent you for your birthday.
I had a lovely chat to my daughter yesterday and she was all set to do some yarn dying (she does crochet and dyes yarn lovely colours) as a birthday treat to herself.

Cali, I am so glad you are finding enjoyable things to watch. My favourite at the moment is a new series of ‘Les Petits Meurtres d’Agatha Christie’ a French police drama with the plots based on Agatha Christie’s books. Such a treat.
Let’s hope your scales stop behaving so wildly and settle to a nice downward trajectory.

Betsy, 900cal days will get you there.

Keep warm. I’ve been thinking about the tricks I learnt to keep warm with being so sedentary and unwell. I’ve noticed the last couple of days that if I drink cold water I immediately get cold right through, unless I am being active at the same time. So I get up and drink water and do some housework (3 things x 3 😉 ) and then have a hot drink to sit down with. 2 pairs of socks is a good tip someone gave me. And good old Melbourne layers ofcourse. Heat bags, thermal underwear, baths, and sticking my heater on high for a bit, ofcourse.

Today I am going to make a big pot of soup and have a bowl of it as often as I need through my fast day. I will aim to keep under 800 calories, I won’t be too fasty today.

I bet NZ’s experience of supermarkets gouging prices through the lockdown, fed in our govt’s decision to keep more food shops open.
Ooh and I might find lovely purple carrots again!

My cleaner will come again, which will be frightening if numbers remain this high (or go higher, God forbid, before they start coming down). But I will make my place as safe as I can, as I will need her next week.

Ok, time to go and make soup! Cheers everyone.

Ljoyce, glad to see I wasn’t the only one that was having Wednesday woes, misery loves company 😉 But great that yours’ was a temporary blip.

Cinque, yes that would make sense, I know over here there was a huge outcry from people wanting butchers and vegetable shops to be allowed to open, and many butchers had to throw out tons of meat because they weren’t allowed to open for a month so all the stock in their chillers had to be binned.

Cali, yes there was a substantial increase in prices at the supermarket, all the prices went up by about 25%-30%, but the cunning thing that the supermarkets did that made the biggest difference was they stopped stocking the budget brands on the shelves and only stocked up the premium brands. That’s why my shop more than doubled. I don’t buy a lot from the supermarkets now because I buy all my fresh fruit, veg, meat and eggs from local producers, but it does seem like supermarket prices have dropped a bit.

I had a frustrating day yesterday. I was having my best session ever on the treadmill, I got through 31 minutes running at 12kph without struggling at all and I was feeling so good that I felt like I could run all day, but then I got the urgent need to go to the loo, so I paused the treadmill and dashed off, but when I came back to do the last 14 minutes I just couldn’t get my legs going again. It’s like my body was saying “what the hell are you doing? We stopped, that means we’ve finished our workout. I’m not doing any more” Dinner was a bit of a mix. We had a bowl of dahl for dinner which was nice and healthy, but then I had to use up the blackcurrant pulp that I had left over from when I made some cordial, so I made a blackcurrant and apple pie and had a big slice of that with a scoop of ice-cream for dessert, so not quite so healthy to end with.

well have a good day everyone and I hope you all have a great weekend.

Good morning, cloudy and cool in Sydney with a deluge arriving soon

LJ, oh my goodness – you are stunning! Thanks for posting the gorgeous picture, and YAY for big hair! Funny, these days (pre COVID) I used to go to great lengths to straighten my hair (it is frizzy ugh) whereas in the 80’s and 90’s I would get spiral perms to make it curly. These days I just wash it and leave it which is wonderful as I get annoyed at trying to straighten it. I hope it warms up over in Adelaide soon – and Melbourne and Canberra and Sydney and everywhere! I’m with you Cinque, waiting waiting for warmer weather. Spring will be welcome.

Your shopping trip, despite not finding pj’s, was a success LJ. I really enjoy finding something(s) when not really looking for them.

I had a control day yesterday instead of a fast day. My tummy is carrying on like Mount Vesuvius and so I decided to just have very plain food. The gastro specialist said I may have to go on the Elimination Diet which sounds hideous. My niece tried it for a few months to see if her diet was the cause of her newborn getting terrible rashes. But she finally gave it away as it was not helping and it was far too stringent. She was completely miserable. But I’ll try it if I have to

I’m so glad you are happy with your WOE G’day and that the long fast and your new low carb diet is really doing the job.

I hope you can sell your house soon Penguin. Thanks for the post

It is very hard to resist your fur-child when he/she throws you the begging eyes Cinque. Maxx has put on a few kilos as we took our eye off his food levels so the poor petal is on yet another diet. But we have to be seemingly cruel to be kind. He also hasn’t had any off-leash running time this week until this morning due to Mr Anzac’s crook foot. I don’t dare take him anywhere in the car as if he got away from me he wouldn’t be able to find his way home. So our twice-daily walks have just been around the streets near our home. However we drove to our usual walking spot this morning and managed a quick walk (limp) around the gardens then went to the Rugby oval where luckily it was empty so we could let Maxx off. And boy did he run and run and run! It was lovely to watch him. We played fetch for ages and now he is snoozing like a little (or not so little) lamb.

Betsy, yay for the 900 days and yay for the 9 books. That will keep you occupied when it’s too cold to go out.

I find it so shocking that the big supermarkets can and did price gouge at a time like this Neil. They did it here too when people were panic buying. Profit before anything, ugh. Re your treadmill incident – sometimes you just have to listen to your body when it is telling you ENOUGH ALREADY!

Lindsay, I meant to say the other day that I agree with how you walk Rosy on your left and have the leash across your body and held in your right hand. You then have your left hand in case you need to urgently pull her back plus I walk with a treat in my left hand as part of the loose lead walking training. As time goes on you have the treat in your hand less and less and the dog should (hopefully) still walk nicely. That’s the theory anyway and it seems to be working with Maxx.

Scales are annoying Cali, I couldn’t agree more. Yay for your 400g loss. I’m not weighing at the moment as there is obviously something going on. Possibly the UTI means I am storing fluid? I went to the doctors yesterday and got a script for some antibiotics so hopefully it will kill it off soon.

Ok, work calls. I feel like I need a holiday but I’ll hang on until it warms up so we can go swimming and do outdoorsy stuff.

Have a great Friday

First. I am not joining the pyjama conversation. Dangerous territory for a bloke.

Cinque. I was tired last night and only skimmed. Re- reading I found it. I seem to remember once owning a hamster. Very boring little thing. One set of grandchildren live with two springer spaniels, three cats, a ferret, two rabbits and about five guinea pigs. Much livelier company.

Anzac, I have had a couple of colonoscopies. The prep isn’t fun but it is a great weight loser!. We had a visit yesterday from our son, who brought their dog. Apart from a desire to keep the garden a cat free zone he thinks he is people. He has been here a lot and knows where every thing is, including the dog treats and communicates his need for one very clearly. Son also brought some chocolate cookies my 12 yr old granddaughter had baked for me. My hair has changed as well. Early in the lockdown I went through a Rockhopper Penguin stage. It has since gone a lot greyer and thinner. I can’t entirely blame the chemo – for a guy my age I had more than my share before this.

Cinque. I don’t remember the salmon mousse, or moose. Our TV minor channels are showing a lot of the old “Two Ronnies” who started about the same time. Most of that still works, although some would these days be banned by a party like Orwell’s as wrong thinking. I’ll take that pie.

Neil.I don’t recognise the “boil your bottom ” one, but insults are a rich seam to mine. I liked “His waist size in inches is higher than his IQ” . We are seeing something of New Zealand on TV. I am watching “The Broken Ridge Mysteries” It seems to be the equivalent of our “Midsummer Murders”. – a quiet little place with an amiable cop who has a murder a week. In my time I investigated murders and I remember the experience being more intense, the first 48 hours or so living on chocolate, coffee and no sleep. Which is probably why I watch that one. When they try to get it right it seldom works. Of the British offerings I like “Vera”. Again completely unrealistic but a likeable lead and set in Northumberland, one county north of where I grew up with accents that are mostly about right.

Both being over 75 years old, until 1 August we got a free TV licence, That is scrapped, I got a letter yesterday telling me to pay £157.50. I am not convinced that the BBC is worth it and there is some better stuff on the other channels but watching any TV or streaming it to any device without a licence is a criminal offence. To ensure we all get one they have recruited an enormous number of enforcement people so I’ll have to pay.

We are set for a warm dry spell, cooler here than in the east but we should see 30c. So I’ll spend the morning in the garden. Nurse comes in about lunch time to disconnect my pump. I’ll get my sketch pad out this afternoon. I may take it for a walk, there is a limited number of times I can draw the village church as seen from the garden. I haven’t played my music recently. The wind instruments should be ok but I have lost the little pads of hard skin that string players have on the left finger tips. I’ll have to start gently.

Have a good day everyone.

Watching the Test cricket highlights. Pakistan seem to have the edge.