Good morning,

Lovely morning after fast day. Just making a nice little breakfast! (Two serves of veggies 😉 )

It has stopped raining, and while it is cold, they are forecasting 18c on Thursday, and 21c on Saturday! Betsy and I won’t know ourselves!

My garden seems to have a hint of it and my rocket and chard are bolting, even before I’ve been able to harvest much! (That will teach me for getting them in so late)

Today I am going to make a vegetarian savoury loaf I used to make decades ago. One of my nieces has asked for the recipe, but I lost track of it, so I am working it out from memory and checking similar recipes. I am looking forward to eating it again. It has lentils, mushrooms and nuts in it.

Thin, what a delight to catch up with your DD. Special day!
And lovely news about haircuts, lettuce and and an appointment for Mr Thin.

There has been an election here too, the NT election! I was very proud that one of my ex students was running as an independent in the Barkly, which is a huge remote electorate. He did well, but didn’t win. He was one of the eldest when I was teaching there in 1990 and a great help to me teaching that mad wonderful bunch of kids (age range 4 – 14, school was a tin shed. yikes!).

Ooh today’s numbers have just come in. Only 116! We are going down nearly as quickly as we went up. Touching all the wood and whistling like mad! It would be so good to be way, way down when the lockdown ends.

LJoyce, lovely news that you seem to be recovering without the next course of antibiotics. I hope you have woken up this morning feeling great. How interesting about the Eucalyptus oil. I hope it has done its job.

I presumed Miss 6 wanted a child sized broom, but I conferred with her mum and we bought one that isn’t actually a kids broom but about a metre tall with a dustpan, https://i.pinimg.com/originals/34/1a/db/341adb45e8b0ffb1f8979a43deeb79d3.png cheaper, and it might be useful!

Ooh those scales. It is like the up and downs of the covid numbers… but trending downwards! (woot woot)

Betsy, oh dear the cold weather is bad for you. Hopefully this better week, weatherwise, will have you dropping grams like dandruff. 😉 Good luck with the week of 800 calories max.

I am doing similar for 5 days, but not calling it that this time. I am playing with the idea that I can make light eating days part of my normal range. I’ll see how easy it is to eat nearly as lightly as I did the week before last, until my Thursday fast day. (Aiming to reset my brain).

Off to cook lentils! Best wishes all.

Hello everyone, sending you good wishes today for an excellent fast day, or non fast day!

Thin, it must have been so hard to let your daughter go at the end of the day. Hiking in the Malverns sounds wonderful.

I hope you had a great fast Monday, a change is as good as a holiday. I hope!

Well my vegetarian loaf came out well but a bit crumbly because I put in double the amount of brown rice. A bit too delicious, I ate 4 slices and had a very full belly. Not a light eating day after all. The remainder is in the freezer and today is a new day.

Cheers all.

Good evening everyone.

Well, the plan was good, but the execution? Not so hot so far, but much better than last week. I managed to keep to 950 calories yesterday, and today was a CD of 1200 calories. Tomorrow is planned to again be 800 calories, and as the food is already mainly prepared, should happen.
I made a miscalculation for my last post, as my ATL on this WOL was 67.8, so started the 8 days only 1.8 kg higher than that. I was already down to 69.3 kg this morning, and hope for a consistent drop for the week 🙂

Thin, sounds like you had a lovely day of walking with your DD. When will you be able to catch up with her again?

Anzac65, yay for re-found mojo. I’ve borrowed a bit of yours for the next several days (I’ll share it with Cinque, too 🙂 ).

Cinque, your vegetarian loaf sounds delish, and must have tasted good, too, if you polished off 4 slices. Hope there was a lighter eating day that followed today.
Oh, and BTW, so pleased to see the virus numbers going down, both new cases and more people recovering.

CalifDreamer, hope those fires are staying away from your immediate area. They sound horrific this year, and summer’s not over yet.

Neilithicman, did you get your eating back on track?

Hello to LJoyce, LindsayL, Turnabout, GDayfromSA, Penguin, plus to anyone else who’s “lurking”.

Stay safe and well everyone!

Good morning,
a quick hello while I have my coffee and then I need to get my home covidsafe for my homehelp.

Anzac, woot for that mojo!

Betsy, ooh yes, I’d love to share the mojo aura too.

Penguin, ooh that end of summer harvest. That will keep you busy. And maybe your last harvest in your current home?

Penguin, I forgot to share this earlier: https://www.penguins.org.au/virtual/live-penguin-tv/ , now I wonder why I thought of you? They had the first one last night and it was so popular it crashed, but it should settle down.

I remember watching the parade as a child, no infrastructure, we stood on the beach with only a couple of ‘street lights’ so we could see them, and the adults warning us not to get in their way (the penguins, not the adults).

I had a good day eating lightly yesterday, and I have today organised. Doesn’t that make a difference Betsy! I’m going close to 800 today and tomorrow.

Penguin, a floral chair, so you can sit and have a rest in the garden, if you need it! https://i.pinimg.com/736x/3a/c5/35/3ac5356405c58af95d4e7037bfebba66.jpg

Cali, the fires sound dreadful. I’ve heard there is more dry lightning and hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated. Not you I hope.

Okay, off to get organised. I’ll be wearing one of the excellent masks my niece made. Dragonflies on a black background!

Waiting for today’s numbers with fingers and toes crossed.

Cheers all, be kind to your precious bodies today.

Morning all, weigh-in day and I’m back up to 90.7, seems to be part of my normal fluctuations, probably aided by the fact we had a big roast lamb dinner last night, so I’m not too concerned.

On the bright side I’m getting my fitness right up. I’m running a full 45 minutes at 12kph on my running days, and powering through 15 minutes on the rower at the top setting and 30 minutes of hill climbs on the bike on the other days.

I’ve asked my younger boy what he wants to do with me during the next school holidays, he’s decided he wants to go away for a cycling trip so that is great with me. I’ll take him on the Clutha Gold trail that I did as my first ride, hopefully he’ll be fine with that one. It should be fun.

Have a great day everyone

HK, that’s the trouble with alcohol ,isn’t it? We throw caution to the wind wrt food choices. Best avoided on FDs. Sounds like you’re doing well though and lovely to have that video call.

Cinque, the veggie loaf sounds yummy. Extra bonus that it can be frozen. I don’t really like switching FDs, especially doing one after the appointed day, I’d rather have one in the bank. But it worked out OK.

Anzac, 15kgs off! Hurray for that, well done. You must be feeling the difference. I’m really enjoying eating lots of fish. DD never liked it so it was more trouble than it was worth when we lived together, not to mention the price in Oz. Here, it’s cheaper. One of the things I like to make is the Hairy Bikers’ Leeky Mash Fish Pie. Much of the potato is replaced with leeks and it contains large chunks of yummy fish.

Betsy, more progress for you too. You’re on a mission. Not sure when we’ll see DD again. She has a hectic work schedule and plans to resume her little jaunts to Europe on her days off, starting with Greece next week. We’d be less keen to take the risk after any o/seas travel exposure. I’ve survived one year of ’empty nest’ but don’t like it one bit.

Penguin, we were playing chess yesterday and looked through the porthole to find we were at right angles to our mooring, blocking the entire canal. A huge gust of wind had pulled out our stakes which had been loosened by the heavy rain. I was winning at that point but, after all that excitement, became distracted and lost. Today seems much calmer and the sun’s shining.

Thanks Thin….yes 15kg last year (or more like in the 18 months leading up to The Holiday) but very sadly I put 4kg on during the 7 week holiday and another 4-ish Covid kilos and I am struggling big time to get back into 5:2 and get this gain off.

So glad you are ok Cali and I’m glad you are enjoying McLeods daughters. I loved that show when it was on here originally

Good evening all.

Well, I managed to put on the brakes at 1000 calories, so not the 800 that I was aiming for, but still acceptable as part of a string of low-cal days. Weigh-in this morning has me at 69 kg, so 600 gms down in the past two days. Hope that tomorrow morning will have me into the 68s again, with 5 days to go. Fingers crossed.

Cinque, I had to chuckle at the flower chair you sent to Penguin. How much searching do you have to do to find all these?
Hope your homehelp is getting better at Covid-safe practices in the home.

Penguin, sorry to read that there’s been a local virus spread in your area – do maintain precautions yourself, please, and stay safe!

Thin, when I read your post about your successful chess game devolving into a loss due to the loosened stake and shift of boat, I wondered if OH had slipped out and done the deed, just to distract you 🙂 Probably not, but … I wondered.

CalifDreamer, so glad to read your post and know that the fires are a reasonable distance from where you live. That’s a relief. And the weather is starting to cool down a little – another relief!

Anzac65, you can do it with your weight loss. You did well last year, and after this year’s understandable blips (holiday and Covid-19) you only regained 8 kgs. I’m sure if I can do it, you can. I lost 13 kg last year, regained 10 kg of the 13 lost by March this year, but have now lost not just that 10, but an additional 4 kg (and more, but I blipped up by 1.8 kg, and now I’m determinedly pulling it down again). I am loving this way of life as there are no failures, just setbacks that can be overcome.

Neilithicman, wow, you’re aceing it with the exercise. A bike trip with your younger son over the school holidays sounds great, and I hope you both manage it well.

Goodnight and sleep well all.

Ha ha Betsy, no, we heard a huge noise and OH ran out the stern exit, I the aft and we sprung into action in the rain, all sorted within a few minutes. Then he blindsided me with a checkmate that I didn’t see coming….

CalifD, good to hear from you. Who knows about the accuracy of statistics? I’m over them. I take the view that nothing has changed wrt covid since the beginning. Every person I pass is a potential suspect! I think you’re right, stay at home where possible, wear a mask when you’re out. Maintain social distancing at 6ft. Disappointing that there’s not more progress with vaccines.

CalifD, quite enjoying Amazon Prime except that I don’t think much of the movie categories – no genres to select from, just ‘movies we think you’ll like’ and bizarrely, ‘movies that ended last week’ (thanks, that’s useful!) and so on. And we’ve yet to sort out the lip sync with audio. Should have asked DD. Meanwhile, the free o/night delivery is fabulous in our situation. I just broke my second coffee frother this morning and another will be here tomorrow. I will probably axe Netflix for a while as we don’t need both – although we’re watching that bizarre, ‘Umbrella Academy’. My brother advises that the series of ‘The Crown’ that he’s in will be aired in November so we’ll re-instate it then.

Anzac, you can do this. Stop yo yo’ing around and get on with it! He he.

Penguin, yes, a beautiful sunny day today. Good result from your treatment?

Neil, lovely plans to look forward to with your boys. You’re a workout machine!

Morning from a crisp and sunny Brisbane. I’ve stepped away for a few days, and whoosh…..no chance at all of catching up.

So, I’ll go with what I remember, and apologies for what I’ve missed.

Penguin, being gentle with yourself when you are feeling tired can’t be bad, can it? If your body is telling you to sit in a chair and read, then why not? Not a bad place to be, with the virus spreading in your area.

We have some restrictions back, after a cluster from a Wacol youth detention centre. Low numbers, but a huge contact tracing job because a large number of young people had been released, before it was known that a supervisor had tested positive. Good news from the Uni of Qld with their vaccine being tested on hamsters and showing promise.

I’ve bought almost no clothes this year, but yesterday found two terrific items, and on sale….a gorgeous skirt, straight, knee length, white, with a grey monochrome rose pattern. Made in Morocco, of all places, fully lined, polished cotton with a slight stretch. $50 …reduced from $229. Also a pair of stretch black fitted jeans, from New Zealand, for $30. I’m going back this morning with DD, hoping she’ll find a treasure to fit her slim size 10. Such an incentive, to wear that wonderful skirt.

Weight-wise, I’m with you Anzac. Up down, up down, but a little more down than up. Three people I spoke with yesterday were bemoaning their Covid weight gain, and DD says it’s the same in her workplace. So everyone who’s on a downward trajectory should take a bow. If we can do it in these times, imagine what we’ll be like when the Covid threat lifts.

I was appalled, I don’t think that is too strong a word, to hear our church leaders – Anglican, Catholic, Greek Orthodox – raising concerns about the ethical use of foetus cells in the development of a vaccine. The implication seemed to be that the cells were being harvested for that purpose, and not as I heard a scientist explain, from a cell that was probably decades old. I don’t understand the science, but I do think it is irresponsible to raise fears in people, and not explain the whole process. I read an amazing book,
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is the story of an African American woman who died in the 1950s, whose cells (taken without permission), were the first to be able to be cultured, and have been used (and still are) to develop treatments for many diseases….polio, cancer research, IVF. A wonderful book – enlightening, but also a sad reflection on the racism of the era and her tragic life.

Moving on…..

Betsy, HelenKate, you are doing brilliantly – examples to the rest of us who struggle.

LJ good to read your chest infection is improving with just one dose of antibiotics. Another natural tonic is honey, taken with some hot water and lemon. I saw an article about honey’s natural properties just the other day. I’ll try to find the link.

I poked my head in the hive (not literally of course) the other day to see how they are going, and was surprised how full the hive looks. I’d taken bars out to help them through winter – too much space, and they struggle to keep warm. Bt it is very very crowded, so DS is coming at the weekend for us to perhaps harvest some honey, but definitely give them more bars and more room. The risk is if they get too crowded, they’ll create another queen, and then half the hive will take off to pastures new.

I have very high hopes for my citrus this year. My 3 metre mandarin tree has to date produced just one fruit … delicious, but hardly enough. The tree is covered in blossom and the scent from the verandah is heavenly. I’ve planted another mandarin down there, along with a grapefruit, lime and lemon, and I’m hoping the workers will feed well, and cross pollinate along the way.

Anzac, thanks for asking the question about payment for contracting. In the end, I decided to go with a sum per 10,000 words, which can be adjusted up if the work is complex, or has significant second language issues.

Just entering week 4 of Rosy’s season, and we think we may try the dog park today ….well, the puppy park where she’ll be more contained. My caged lion will love the run, and I’ll love not having to rescue anything she can reach, as she plays the ‘chase’ game.

Thin, great you were able to see your DD….hard, to have her near but not be able to see her til now.

Calif, hope the weather is cooler, and the fires are coming under control. What a stressful time you’re having in the US. Yes, in response to your comment, there is huge interest here in your elections. Usually something about them daily on the news, particularly with the conventions.

Cinque, dragonfly on a black background? That will go wonderfully with your red hair.

OK I’ve waffled on for far too long ….

Best wishes to all.

Penguin, thanks for the chemo report. Are you near the end of the course of treatment now? Or was it October? Interesting about Prime. I’ve made an effort to fix the lip sync issue but nothing works so, unless they offer me a free extension, we’ll cancel. It’s a brand new Smart TV so, in my mind, if they don’t offer a service that works on it without firesticks and who knows what else, they don’t have a service at all.

I’ve had a blow out on the scales this morning as we took advantage of the final day of the ‘eat out to help out’ scheme last evening visiting a Bangladeshi restaurant in Droitwich Spa. Excellent meal for £20. No alcohol but too much naan. Today, friends in Wales who are returning to Spain on Sunday are driving up for a pub lunch so I must be careful in my food choice. Not to mention social distancing as I don’t think they really get it.

Cinque, the mask wearers! One day I was all alone in the library’s mezzanine printing some documents and took off my mask as it was so hot. The librarian, without a mask, came upstairs just to tell me that I must keep it on. Fair enough. Yesterday, there were three of us lined up at the computers. One man wore his below his nose and the lady was wearing hers on her head. I wasn’t totally comfortable in the restaurant last night either as no staff wore a visor or mask.

Cinque, thanks for your lovely comments on DD, very kind of you to remind me. Lucky the empty nest is a skinny narrowboat and a not a 4bd, 3ba house to rattle around in! Did you hate it when your DD first moved out?

Lindsay, hoping the covid cluster in your area is dealt with swiftly.

So sorry for your loss Lindsay.

Raining heavily now after a sunny calm morning. We went to Hereford, twenty miles north of here, to do some serious grocery shopping. To misquote something I read recently, “It worries me that my life is in the hands of these idiots.” The town is laid out in one way systems and left/right lanes which were being ignored by about half of the population who were maskless. It is mandatory to wear masks in stores, which the majority were. However, in Marks and Spencer, a well respected long established national store, the customers had masks but a number of the staff were moving around the store and taking payment without them! We then went to a butcher: one staff, no screen, no mask. Something else I read recently, “People are becoming more judgemental, I can tell that by looking at them”.

I like Herefordshire. It is still a very rural county with names straight out of history or literal descriptions. We passed “Much Birch”, Little Birch”, “Much Dewchurch”, and “King’s Thorn”. Further north are “Richard’s Castle” and “Mortimer’s Cross”. The original “Hampton Court”, older than the Tudor one near London, is just north of Hereford. A medieval music band I was in played at a few of the annual re-enactments of the Wars of the Roses battles at the Cross and at the Court.

Thin, I start the last chemo of this series next Wednesday morning. In the afternoon I have a scan to see if it is working. That strikes me as hopeful because the general assumption is that I’ll do another lot which will continue until early November. The canal network comes very close to where we hope to live, so If the second lot works I’ll invite you both to a celebratory meal at our favourite country pub, the one we went to with Merry and Mr M a couple of years back!

Lindsay. It doesn’t matter how old she was or how expected it was, it leaves a gap. Keep the memories.

Betsy, absolutely right about exercise – a good day today. I am going to forget about the weights. Because the line through which they give me chemo is permanently plumbed into the side of the biceps and up through the arm, medical opinion on the subject of building up the muscle comes with all kinds of warnings about not overdoing it. I think I’m going to have to work the other muscle groups and just try to keep the arms where they are.

Afternoon all.

Lindsay, sorry to hear that, we’ve really had a bad run on this forum with illness and death in 2020. As one of my friends put it “let’s just put up the Christmas treeS now and call it a f#@$ing year.”

Betsy, hope you’re enjoying your study

Penguin, Good luck for your chemo on Wednesday, hope you’re still coping well with it.

Hope you have a nice easy fast today Cinque. I’m cutting down my Thursday fast for just a Monday fast. I’ve just joined a new calorie/exercise tracking site called “lose it” and I think I’ve been undereating a bit for the amount of exercise I’m doing, which tends to lead to bigger eating during the weekend. I guess this is what maintenance is all about, trying out different things to find out what works for you.

Well the weather is suppoed to be good for the weekend so hopefully the ground will dry up enough that I can get my lawn mowed and get into the garden to get the rest of it ready to plant out.

We had a scare with my youngest, I can’t remember if I posted it here, but he was practicing double front flips at parkour and landed across his neck and he said he heard a click when he landed. It wasn’t sore then but was sore when he woke the next morning. We took him to the doctor to get it checked out and it seems like he’s just damaged his trapezius muscle. The doctor said he was lucky because the type of injury is the same as what they see in collapsed rugby scrums or people diving into too shallow water and could have led to permanent paralysis.

Well, all’s well that ends well I suppose. Have a great weekend everyone

Penguin, Herefordshire is so pretty – as are many of the counties we’ve been enjoying; Staffs, Warwickshire, Shropshire. Great place names. I do find it odd that staff in some public places (libraries, butchers, supermarkets, etc) carry on as if covid somehow differentiates between the worker and the customer! It must be extra hard for you in your currently vulnerable category. We would love to meet you and Mrs Penguin when the risks are minimal. Which canal would that be?

Yesterday, friends drove up from Wales. We’d been putting them off for weeks as we didn’t sense that they really understood the risks. We were right, ‘he’ wanted to shake OH’s hand, ‘she’ is a hugger. And they revealed that they’ve been all over the country, Hampshire the day before, visiting various friends before returning to Spain. They thought we were being paranoid and OTT for declining both gestures. We’d earlier worked out how we’d safely handle their being on the boat. We feel a bit like you, Cinque, after your home help leaves. Fingers crossed for two weeks. It was lovely to see them but was it worth the risk?

Anzac, it was a blow out – and I was lucky to get 100g off today after yesterday’s pub fish pie. Utterly enormous portions. Good job dropping 700g, good luck for the weekend’s choices. You can do it.

Neil, lucky escape for the young lad. I have a friend saying she’s not adding an extra year to her age this year as she didn’t get to do anything.

Hi all, still from what was a sunny Whakatane earlier but is now cloudy, although warmer mornings than we have been having this week with a cold southerly blast working it’s way up both islands. Now some warmth coming form the west, could use some!

Not much to report, been out walking every day, getting wet some days, feeling good and avoiding crowds and lots of people, side stepping others in the supermarket seems to be the norm now, for some anyway. Hit the 71’s this week, have been bouncing around a bit with .3 being the lowest but had a bad day yesterday and am back up to 71.6 today so a controlled weekend is called for. I defrosted the freezer last weekend and made a list of all the packets of meat I found so have planned our meals until this coming Wednesday! Then I bought a couple of packets of short dated salmon on Monday and portioned and froze them too, so plenty of meals to go yet before I buy up big on meat again. The woman at the checkout blew me away when we she commented on the contents of our trolley, it was overloaded with veg, head of celery, whole cabbage, half red cabbage, silverbeet, fresh spinach, onions, avocados, spring onions, mushrooms, bag of lettuce and leeks, she said she is lucky if she gets one trolley a day looking like that! Even milk, commenting the younger ones all buy fizzy drinks instead of milk, mainly because it’s cheaper! I found it really sad, but looking around, not surprising, just depressing.

Sorry to hear about your loss Lindsay, keep those memories tucked away, you’ll at least have them forever.

The storm in Aus sounded really bad and Hurricane Laura, what a year, be so glad to see the back of it, surely 2021 WILL be better?

Best go and cook some of those lovely mushrooms with some thick creamy yoghurt and get back on track, enjoy your weekend everyone,

Turn

Hello everyone.
I’m behind in reading posts and will try to catch up later.

Lindsay, my condolences for your loss. Regardless of age, it’s never easy to lose someone who was so dear to you. I hope you have many happy memories of her that will provide some comfort.

A quick update on my weight an eating plan. I am still comfortably within my preferred weight window. A week ago, when I made it to the 75s, I decided I’d had enough of the endless 800cal days and reverted back to a fairly normal 5:2 program. Thankfully with a more modest appetite and more control on my NFDs.
I knew that once I stopped Fast800 my body would make a valiant attempt to replace its missing glycogen and water stores and I was dreading a weight bounce of up to 3kg. Thankfully it was only 2kg up and I managed to still remain within my weight window – just. After a week on 5:2 I am moving down again and I’m hopeful that with NFD eating I’ll maintain my glycogen stores and the FD weight loss will remove a little more body fat. The slightly warmer weather this week has helped a lot as it encourages me to be outside a bit more and helps me moderate my appetite.

Take care all. I must rush. I need to get some seeds planted before my friend arrives for a walk.

Afternoon all. We seem to be in a cycle of lovely mornings and deteriorating afternoons with periods of strong winds. I have just spent an hour in the garden raking up and disposing of a dozen large garden buckets of windfall plums. The deteriorating weather and the offer of a cup of tea have brought me indoors.

Cinque. The wind is knocking over my taller flowers. This year I have had a really good display of Bishop of Llandarf, which surprised me because I left them in the ground over last winter. You are not the only one who forgets the days. The only thing that keeps me on track is the need to know that it is Friday because “Vera” is on the box and I need my weekly top up of the north-east. Tonight we will inevitably have at least one murder in what looks like an otherwise peaceful small NZ town.

Neil, maintenance is a whole new world. I got there last winter and rapidly learned that whilst the rigorous 5:2 is no longer essential, watching the scales is. But being able to buy a shirt with “trim fit” or “slim” on the label is the incentive to stay there. Ouch for your son.

Anzac there is a couple in the village I don’t know, but recently they have been walking a half grown black Lab bitch past our house. Typically I now know the pup’s name, her history and that she enjoys a rub behind the ears. I have yet to learn the owners’ names.

Thin, the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal will be very near. It was built as a ship canal to by-pass a dangerous part of the Severn Estuary, so by canal standards it is enormous. It has to be entered from the Severn, which can be tricky if the conditions are not right. Further up stream the river is gentler. Tewksbury, which is about 15 miles from where we hope to live, is very much a boating town, with an interesting Abbey. The leaders of the losing side in a nearby Wars of the Roses battle were executed in the Abbey grounds. Our local history tends to the violent. I am writing this about 100 metres from the ruins of a fortified medieval manor house that survived until Oliver Cromwell’s boys arrived in the village. Perhaps that should be our national history – as a boy I had a day of school every year to celebrate the battle of Neville’s Cross when the Scottish army came south and were defeated by the Bishop of Durham.

Betsy, former bottles of milk, replaced with water. I am using them because they are better than nothing and a couple of kg in each hand doesn’t really count as weight training if you are my size.

Turnabout, we defrosted the house freezer recently. Two nights ago I put into it a bottle of wine for OH and a beer for me, for a ten minute chill. Then we changed our plans and it was 24 hours before I remembered they were there. Fortunately neither bottle broke, but both leaked through the cap and I am looking at a freezer that needs defrosting again. Trolley watching is my indoor sport. I look at some and question if they own a cooker or a pan but mainly I feel sorry for the kids.

LJ. It sounds like you have that well under control.

Thin, I need to keep a closer eye on these posts. I hadn’t realised you were at Droitwich, I had a mental image of you somewhere Welsh. Have fun in Birmingham. You have probably already heard the local claim that they have more canals than Venice.

Penguin, I’m laughing – that extra f makes all the difference to the quality of schooling you had! One day of school every year vs. one day off school every year! We were briefly on the River Severn from Stourport Basin to access The Droitwich Canal (restored in 2011). The river was a little overwhelming after the slow pace of canals but at least it’s possible to turn a narrow boat around if necessary. I’ve read about the Bore but the part we were on isn’t tidal. The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal is detailed in the edition of the companion guide that we’re currently using. I believe there are 200 miles of canals in the B’ham Canal Network.

When we had our dingo, we knew all the doggies’ names in the local park but rarely bothered to learn the owners’ names.

Interesting how intent can change so easily when knocking out these posts (happens to me ALL the time!). Just re-read, “I’ve had one weekend FD since I started 5:2 for this very reason.” Should have read, “I’ve had one weekend FD every week since I started 5:2 for this very reason.”

Good afternoon everyone.

Aggh! to my CD of yesterday – a quite indulgent NFD, some with bought food which is quite salty, so back to 69.6 on the scales this morning. I know at least half that will have dropped off again by tomorrow, provided I continue with today’s CD, but it’s annoying all the same. Never mind. We live and learn, and I am still learning what I can and can’t do to maintain weight loss. Being around 69 kg is a really pivotal weight for me, so I have to push on!

Hope you’re enjoying the sun, Cinque. I’m not appreciating the wind, so staying indoors. Without restrictions, I’d be over wandering around the local Westfield, but not under the current circumstances. Bother it, being back over 100 cases!

Thin, good luck with all those locks. Will you try to do them all in one hit, or can you moor somewhere on the way through? It sounds quite onerous.

Penguin, as a little lady, 2 kg weights are my “go-to” weight size 🙂 However, with the pic line, isn’t it more about not moving that one arm around too much, whatever size the weights? Whatever, I’m sure you’re exercising all due care.

LJoyce, great that you’re back into your maintenance weight range and back on 5:2. You must feel really chuffed about that. You’ve certainly done much better than me on my “so-called” FD800 regime of the past week. Well done you!

Turnabout, your trolley buys sound very healthy, and nice that someone recognised that. Yes, it’s sad what some people buy these days, not only for themselves but also to feed their kids.

Okay, better go. Have to prepare a 3-minute talk about my research for a presentation competition being run by my College. I wasn’t going to participate, but someone else is going to record my talk on Zoom and submit it for me, so now I’ve no excuse not to take part. Being recorded tomorrow morning, so better get to it. Has to be exactly or just under 3 minutes. If it’s over, my talk will be disqualified.

Keep on keeping on everyone!

Hi all, I’ve gone nuts on the food this weekend because I’ve been working flat out. It was such nice weather (20 degrees both days) that I spent about 5 hours yesterday getting our lawns done, mulching around all our fruit trees, weeding out the vegetable gardens, getting the compost mixed through and getting them ready to plant. Then today I spent 3 hours clearing out overgrown bush at the local scout camp that we use as a temporary frisbee golf course once a year, followed by 2 hours of frisbee golf. According to my tracker I burned around 3,000 calories over the two days above my BMR of around 1800 calories per day, so it didn’t matter that I ate around 3,000 calories a day. Man I’m knackered now though. Early night tonight and then off to work tomorrow for a rest. 😉

I hope you all had a good weekend and a good start to the week tomorrow.

Good morning all

Stunning weather here in Sydney. Yesterday it was 24 and sunny so we washed all things Maxx (bedding, beds, dog) and I spent a couple of hours outside reading which was very indulgent of me but lovely. I unfortunately hurt my knee though so am resting it for a couple of days and not participating in dog walking. More incentive to get the weight off as now both knees are painful.

Thin, when I read about your boating adventures I truly feel like I am reading a novel. It all sounds so peaceful, romantic and exciting. I had to shake my head at your friends being in denial about the virus, but it sounds like you handled the situation perfectly.

My head is still spinning thinking about your weekend activities Neil!

Some of OH’s seeds are already sprouting, especially the shallots (spring onions, green onions, scallions….depending on where you live). The seedlings are going gang-busters so We will have lots of lovely herbs soon – thyme, oregano, mint, basil, sage, chives and parsley. Also two types of chilli

Good luck with your talk Betsy. It’s not something I enjoy and even running a meeting makes me anxious. However it is part of my job so I just get on with it. I’m sure yours will be very successful

Sorry to hear about your bad sleep Cinque, I hope you had a better one after your fasty FD yesterday.

Ha ha Penguin re not knowing the owners names. We have lots of friends met via Maxx and their names are: Archie’s Dad, Spencer’s Dad (actually we do know his name because he is an ex Welsh rugby player and OH recognised him), Margot’s Mum etc etc. I do hope you and Mrs P can meet up with Thin and Mr Thin one day.

Cali, I read that the fires are still out of control in California so I hope you are still ok

Almost time to start work so I will finish here. Hi to everyone I haven’t mentioned and a big reach out to Quacka, G’day, Intesha, Merry and anyone else who may be lurking but not posting. I hope you are all doing well

Morning all

Thin, again I’m envious of the lifestyle. I love the water and I can’t wait for spring weather to kick in so I can get back out again. Our kayaks are waiting under the house just itching to be used again.

Awesome to see stuff growing isn’t it Anzac? My wife has been getting all our seedlings ready and there’s not a windowsill, table, desk, or even the hot water cupboard that isn’t covered in little punnets of seedlings in various stages of sprouting. I think at the moment she’s got cucumber, courgette, capsicum, chili, okra, pumpkin, tomato, brassicas and beans.

Cinque, I was definitely paying for my weekend work yesterday and today. I got to 4pm yesterday and crashed. I needed a couple of hours napping to recover, and this morning I was very sore. The gorse and blackberry we were clearing has ripped my arms up too. Now I dread having to put on hand sanitizer.

Well today is fast day, I’ve got some silverbeet and haloulmi for lunch and some chicken livers for dinner, total of around 1,000 calories. Hopefully I can stick to some reasonable eating tomorrow and have a good weigh-in on Wednesday morning.

Have a great day everyone

Anzac, thank you so much for your kind words. How nice that you can enjoy the warm, spring sunshine in the perfect surroundings that OH has created over the years. No need to feel guilty, you work hard.

Neil, we miss our kayaks. OH had a Klepper – made in Germany from wood and canvas that folded into two bags weighing 19kgs. When we left Perth, he sold it to someone in Sydney and we shipped it across. Mine was just a sit on Gizmo that can be replaced anytime. We see a few kayakers on the canals.

Cinque, ha ha! We will look at the slim person pushing the trolley, absent of supersized bottles of sticky drinks, cakes, pies and potato chips and know that you buy your veggies elsewhere. Whenever I carry large loads up and down steps, my knees remind me how it felt to haul around excess body weight.

They sound really cool, we’ve just got some cheapish plastic sit-on ocean kayaks, but they’re fine for pottering around.