Hello Southern Hemispherites!!

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  • Absolutely wonderful results Betsy.

    I will catch up on the remaining posts on the weekend, once I’ve recovered from 2 days babysitting.

    Nearly the weekend. Listening to the tennis while trying to write, so forgive any errors.

    Sorry, I read back and see now what Neilithicman/ Anzac65 were referring to. It’s the new program the CSIRO are running, 12 weeks online I think. You pay upfront, but if you persevere, lose weight, and do the other things Anzac65 mentioned, you can receive the money back, which could act as a considerable incentive.
    The diet program follows on from their low-carb diet book which I mentioned, low GI, more fat and protein, lower carbs.

    Have a great weekend!

    Hello everyone in this part of the world. I’m Lee, I live in NZ and I’m a fatty 🤣.
    Loving the 5:2. Originally did it a few years ago when I lived in Oz. Loved it then but it was harder when I had a husband to feed normal meals to. Fast forward to now and I’m home after being widowed. Sorry about the long story but my dogs know the story already lol
    Started this 2 Mondays ago. I decided I wanted to do it, got out of bed Sat night grabbed the book from the shelf and started reading. I do have the new version but that meant hunting the other bookshelves. Read it Sat/Sun thinking I’ll start eventually. Woke up Monday and just started. Have kept 3 kgs off. The other 1.7 won’t count until my Monday weigh in reveals what has stayed off 7 days.
    I won’t write this much again but thank you for this forum. I’m sure there will be times when I really need to read the inspiration. Best regards, Lee

    Welcome MsO and KiwiLee. It’s good to see new members in this forum.

    Neil, thank you for the suggestion of The Tourist. It hasn’t made it over to this side of the world yet, but I can see a screen for it on the Roku which means it will eventually get here.

    Thin, if you have access to NF in Spain, Stay Close and The Girl from Oslo are both good. We finished watching them recently. We’re watching Season 3 of After Life now which just came out here. Why not Morocco as a travel destination? Their Covid cases are a fraction of those in Spain or the U.K., both in numbers and per capita.

    Good morning,
    I am writing early on my Sunday fast day, before I get too hot to do anything. I don’t cope well with a heatwave, even if it is only in the early 30C’s.

    Welcome here Kiwi Lee. Do please write as much again any time you feel like it. We will so enjoy getting to know you.
    (But ofcourse you can be as quiet as you like).
    Condolences on the death of your husband. And hello to your dogs.
    Haven’t you made a great start! Fingers crossed you are really pleased with what the scales say tomorrow.

    Gday, MAGNIFICENT! https://www.perham.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/fireworks-gif.gif
    I bet you feel fabulous. Best wishes for a lovely track to below 60kg!

    Cali, sending so many good wishes to your household, and understanding what constant work it is to give OH the care he needs. I am seeing Curt look after my friend Lin as she is losing her ability to do so many things, and I am imagining it is similar for you and OH.

    Betsy, haha, that idea of the weekend free for all eep! yes I know the feeling, but oh dear so counter productive. Hooray for retraining your brain (at least to some extent) on that one. Excellent work all round to be that lovely 3kg down! Congratulations.
    Hopefully this week of hot, and increasingly humid, weather will keep us to light refreshing meals.

    Neil, doesn’t weight bounce!
    Hmm, well, my miso soup is the ‘half my calories at the end of the day’! 😀
    It is nicely filling but you can see why I wake up ready for breakfast on the ‘morning after fast day’.

    Thin, your new petsitting place sounds gorgeous.

    LJoyce, are you recovering from that babysitting? I had Ms5 on Friday, but we just stayed here (instead of going to the playground) which was easier on me, and I recovered more quickly.

    Woot to everyone who tried wordle. I do it every morning. I try to get it by the third line, and today I did. Yay.

    I’m off to make another cuppa, soak some things for my miso soup, and I will give the poor garden a water before it is too hot for anything.

    Best wishes everyone

    Good afternoon on this hot Sunday afternoon in Melbourne.

    We are certainly having a run of warm days. Fortunately not the 37 and over heatwaves (yet) that are so debilitating, but still wearing as the nights are staying warm. Glad you seem to be coping, Cinque and good that your time with Ms5 was a bit more sedate than usual.

    Yes, LJoyce, also hope that your babysitting went well and wasn’t too draining after your infection.

    CalifDreamer, Hope you’re doing okay. There is a lot of variety in what’s available re Aussie series. Doctor, Doctor was a recent addition. If you want some humour, a couple that I enjoyed were “Strange Calls” and “Mr and Mrs Murder”, about a couple who did the clean-up of murder sites and solved the crimes. Unfortunately both those series only went for one season, though.

    Hi KiwiLee, Sorry to read that you lost your hubby, but good to see you join the forum. It’s a good place for mutual encouragement. Neilithicman, Turnabout and MsO are all fellow Kiwis.
    We have both “dog people” and “cat people” on this forum. Anzac65 has a delightful labrador named Maxx, LindsayL has Rosy, while Cinque and I have cats. Mine is Wilbur, a 16-yr-old ginger tabby who rules the roost here.
    And, some of the forum folk (not me!) are very capable cooks so you’ll find lots of useful food tips.

    The good news from me is that on Sunday I still weigh what I did Saturday morning so I haven’t gone crazy with the weekend eating (so far, anyway).

    Have a great day!

    Good afternoon everyone.

    Adelaide feels like the tropics this week – high humidity, temps 28-30C and endless rain. They tell us the rain east, so be warned. The rain is mostly welcome (although finding a gap for a walk is proving challenging). The humidity is just appalling. I have no idea how people live with it full time – I guess it depends what you are used to – which is why I’m struggling. Even with the aircon going all night last night (something I very rarely do), I struggled to sleep with the humidity.
    I hope tonight is better as I’m looking after the kids all day tomorrow, so I really need some rest.

    Welcome KiwiLee, Sorry to read of your bereavement. Good to hear you’ve slipped back into 5:2. Some of us post often, others just occasionally, so feel free to post as often as you need. It’s good to see the Kiwi contingent growing.

    GDSA, Congratulations on getting to your first goal weight. You have accomplished a lot for your health and your future career in the last year.

    Cali, lovely to hear from you. Glad you are still finding series you enjoy watching, especially as it’s something your OH can settle into for a few hours, allowing you some down time too.

    Cinque and Betsy, I’m still tired after Thurs-Fri babysitting and the humidity impacting my sleep isn’t helping. I foolishly agreed to look after the kids all day tomorrow too as their parents were desperate. Luckily I have a quiet week after that, so time to recover.

    Betsy, I have issues with the “free for all” too – although every NFD is vulnerable for me.

    Thin, I loved your comment about the dogs not being trained -yet. The owners will be surprised to find better behaved pooches when they return.

    Neil, you are taking the weight fluctuations well. Hope that FD gets you back in to double digits.

    I was about to go for a walk and the rain recommenced just before I started this post – it’s still going although it’s down to drizzle now. I’m thinking I might walk anyway, the rain might cool me off.

    Take care all.

    Cinque, ha ha, you reminded me to check the wordle but it was same one as the other day. Then I realised I’d been looking at a sample. I can’t work out how to access the daily word! I feel like the monkey trying to get the grape (but less intelligent).

    CalifD, we decided against hopping from here to other countries because the rules change so frequently as politicians around the world introduce these knee-jerk policies. When we chose the Canaries, there were 200 cases in total versus 140,000 cases per DAY in the UK. Who’d have thought we’d have to test to return to UK under those circumstances? And then we got caught up in that mess with OH’s false positive.

    Calif, thanks for the NF recommendations. I’d cancelled it in the marina as the signal was so bad. We tried to start it up here but it won’t accept our application because it detects that we’re in Spain and insists on sending a code to a Spanish mobile phone number which we don’t have.

    Welcome KiwiLee, I’ll be the first to abbreviate that to KL. Neil will be happy with the kiwi support as we seem to have lost Jono. Great to be back on 5:2.

    Betsy, keep up the good work.

    Neil, nine reported cases of O in NZ according to our news.

    LJ, and others, sorry for the humidity. It can drain the sap from you. Friends in WA are reporting persistent temperatures in the 40Cs forecast. It’s a bit cool here for our liking but we’re told our boat is now well and truly iced in so it must be jolly cold there. It rained here yesterday and 65kg of wet dog is really something to try and dry off.

    OH now has the other dog heeling on the way to the nearby wooded area where he can be let off to chase about. It really takes so little to train a dog, we don’t know why people don’t bother. The Spanish mastiff walks in a more dignified manner by my side. The owner claims to run with the dogs twice a day but I’m doubtful – the poor fella struggles to keep up with our walking pace. OH filmed his gait and sent it to DD who confirms he’s likely suffering from arthritis. It makes me sad that he may be suffering but I’m not a vet so feel it’s not my place to criticise the owners’ care. Dogs’ evolutionary niche is to conceal pain.

    Sorry that’s a ramble. Back to the topic of fasting, Cinque, I’m with you today. I dropped 600g since yesterday, no idea how that happened but thankful. Chicken and bacon casserole tonight because I’m unimaginative and the ingredients are readily available.

    Cinque – wordle! “a simple, free word puzzle that gives everyone six chances to guess the same five-letter word, with a new word every day”. Well that threw me. I was looking for the starter word. Turns out, I must enter my own word as suggestion number one. So, I randomly chose DRIVE immediately yielding three clues. So then CRISP and CRIMP. Can it be that easy? Was CRIMP your word also?

    Hi friends

    Welcome KiwiLee, this forum is totally awesome and I hope you find some help and support. I’m so very sorry for the loss of your husband

    Well I’ve joined up to the CSIRO Total Wellbeing diet and I like the website and all the tracking aides etc. I need to be accountable and I am determined to get the refund by tracking every week, uploading a new photo every week and sticking to the meal plans. If nothing else, wanting that refund is a huge motivator! Betsy described the program perfectly a few posts back so I wont repeat it all

    Thin, I am enjoying reading about your travels and the two dogs. Do you know, Mr Anzac and I have very different attitudes to dog training (as you may remember from Maxx early years) and I had to shut up in the end to save us fighting. So now when he walks Maxx he nearly loses his arm and has had several incidents resulting in injury (to the human, not the dog). When I walk Maxx he pulls a bit to start with them realises who has the leash and trots along beside me like a 47 kilo lamb. I hear muttering from Mr Anzac behind me – things like ‘he only walks nicely with you to show me up’ etc. Men! (Sorry Neil)

    Morocco was a wonderful place and we enjoyed it so much; however I hear you about dodging changing Covid rules. After our disastrous trip to Fiji I implore anyone to think twice about going overseas. That said, the Aust govt just changed the rules and you no longer need a PCR test to come home. Just a RAT. So that would have taken a large chunk of stress out of things

    Speaking of the holiday that just keeps giving……last week we were both so sick and not getting any better and there is not a RAT to be found in the Sutherland Shire in Sydney so we decided to get a PCR test. We were shocked when Mr Anzac came back positive and I came back negative. I can only assume mine is a false negative. Well it certainly explains a lot as I believe we had some sort of chest illness to start with (and thus reduced immune system) and then caught Covid either in Nadi airport, on the plane, Sydney airport or the cab home. Either way it is not pleasant I can tell you. Today is the first day I feel remotely human in over 2 weeks. So we are both isolating of course – for 7 days

    Oops, too much rattling on about myself again and I have a work meeting about to start. Will try to come back later

    Cinque and everyone else, thank you for the good wishes. This is one of those times when you just put one foot in front of the other because things change daily so there isn’t really a plan. He likes watching all the different series because that’s been part of our daily routine since the pandemic started. It’s the one time of day when things are relaxed.

    Betsy,Idid a search for those two series and they are both are available here. The lead in Mr. and Mrs. Murder is the sister of the main character in Offspring, so we’ll enjoy seeing her again. We’re becoming familiar with all the Aussie actors!

    Turn, oops I didn’t mean to leave you off the kiwi roll. Betsy has set the record straight. I think of you as English but you probably do think of yourself as a kiwi after all these years.

    Anzac, oh no! This is so interesting. Is it possible that Mr Anzac tested positive because of just having had the booster? I’ve lost track of the time frame, sorry – when was that? It is possible that you are negative even if he’s positive because of your immunity. We know couples here in that situation, one +, one -. PCR is the ‘gold standard’ and accuracy is high. Was the test done at a lab or did you administer it yourselves? One thing that OH and I realised when we undertook a lab test was that we hadn’t been going far enough into our brains with the swab when doing them ourselves!

    CSIRO, how much money is at stake? I bet Maxx was happy to see you after your trip.

    CalifD, wishing you all the best in difficult circumstances.

    Good results after yesterday’s hungry FD. Off to tackle the wordle.

    Back from babysitting and feeling beyond tired. I think I’m running on fumes and looking forward to a very early night!

    Anzac, so sorry to hear your latest news. I hope you and your OH feel much better soon.

    Cali, I’ll add some more Australian series options into the mix.
    The mention of Mr & Mrs Murder reminded me of an Australian crime drama series from the late 90s that I enjoyed. It was called Murder Call (not to be confused with Murder Calls which is not a drama but about real crimes). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118406/ Murder Call is a pair of detectives solving crimes in Sydney.
    Although I haven’t watched it yet, I have also been recording Harrow as a friend recommended it. It’s based around a forensic pathologist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrow_(TV_series) I suspect there may be some similarities to the UKs Silent Witness, which I like.
    I don’t watch series often and usually prefer grittier offerings like Luther (UK).

    Hi to everyone else.

    LJ, I loved Luther. If you liked the psychotic Ruth Wilson in that series, you might like ‘Mrs Wilson’, the spy drama in which Ruth Wilson plays her own grandmother who was the real Mrs Wilson.

    Quick hello.

    Sorry to read, Anzac65, of OH with Covid and possibly you as well. Hope you shake all the symptoms quickly.

    LJoyce, also hope you survived the day with the littlies and can have a proper rest for the remainder of the week.
    I hear you re humidity. We had a few days with high humidity last week – very hard to sleep – and now this week we have a run of nights with minimums about 21, so also difficult to sleep. And, I know your rain is heading our way later in the week. Bracing myself.

    Thin, well done to you and OH in “taming” the behaviour of the dogs you’re “sitting”.
    I think Wilbur has developed some arthritis now, too. He is very careful how he sits and lies down, though his mild limp seems to be a bit better. He limps more when he first gets up from resting. I’m just keeping an eye on it for now, but if it seems to worsen I guess I’ll have to ask the vet for some kind of anti-inflammatory liquid I can give him. Definitely not tablets. I learned my lesson the first time I tried, with a badly scratched forearm. Never again. Liquids are much easier to manage, as I can slide the liquid into the side of his mouth as he’s eating. We’ll see.

    CalifDreamer, hope you enjoy the series I mentioned. Strange calls is a bit wacky, so see if it appeals. The other series may be more to your taste.

    My weight seems to be hovering around the same level at the moment. I’ll either have to ride it out and be patient, or consider a few FDs. For now, just being patient.

    I’m off back to the tennis, so will say goodnight.

    Hi all

    Feeling almost human today, although I stupidly decided to get stuck into some housework before work and am now exhausted with a full days work ahead of me. Tomorrow is Australia day so hooray, a day off to recover

    Thin, the cost to sign up to the CSIRO Wellbeing Diet is A$199. I am really enjoying the website as it has heaps of articles and motivational blogs and a huge recipe bank.

    That’s an interesting thought about the booster. We had our boosters on the Tuesday and he tested positive on the Friday. He is still extremely tired and lethargic and I’ve never ever seen him like this so I really think it is Covid on top of the initial chest infection we both had. I seem to be recovering more quickly so perhaps I don’t have Covid? Who knows really

    I’ve been enjoying the tennis too Betsy. We don’t normally watch it unless there is an Aussie playing, but with the necessity of down time to recover we have watched a lot more games and enjoyed them. Sorry to hear about little Wilbur’s potential arthritis; I would definitely get some anti-inflammatories for him.

    Cali, I can’t imagine what you must be going through with the unknowns around your OH’s health but glad you are both enjoying the Aussie shows. As you said, one foot in front of the other is the only thing you can do right now. We are all thinking of you

    Lindsay, I don’t know if you are reading but if you are I want to say that you are also in our thoughts

    I hope you had an early night LJ and can have some quiet time now without any little one’s around

    Well after day 1 on the CSIRO I have already seen the scales drop overnight. Water weight of course. Today is a semi-FD in that I had a glass of metamucil for breakfast and will have small lunch (san choy bau in lettuce leaves) and chicken meatballs and salad for dinner. That should see the scales slide even further I hope

    Work calls, take care everyone

    Good morning. I got a long but very broken night’s sleep and didn’t finally crawl out until 9am (my fitbit tells me I slept from 11-9, but was only asleep for a total of 8 hours). Exceptionally late hour for me to rise, but when I woke at 6 I was unimpressed and determined to try for at least another hour. Unfortunately the combination of humidity and overnight lows in the mid 20s makes for very broken sleep. But I do feel better rested today than I have in a little while.

    Anzac, very pleased to hear are you are feeling better and also positive about the CSIRO plan. I really hope it helps. Enjoy that lunch, I love san choy bau, but haven’t made it for ages.

    Thin, I did watch Mrs Wilson when it was first shown here. Very intriguing story.

    Betsy, my commiserations on the weather. Adelaide’s overnight minimums are still in the 20s and also still humid, so it looks like we will all be struggling for proper sleep this week.
    Sorry to hear about Wilbur’s troubles. Hopefully the vet can give you something that helps. Some fish oil daily on his wet food might help a little. My rheumatologist said it’s a mild anti-inflammatory – based on published research. As a cat, he may appreciate the fishy taste much more than I do! I’m meant to take 20ml of the liquid, but I can’t tolerate the taste and take 5ml in capsule form instead. If you are looking for it, Melrose make bottles of fish oil.

    I am planning to make spanikopita today as my nephew’s wife gave me a huge bundle of home grown spinach. I have bought ricotta and feta to go with it and a packet of filo. I will make individual serves and freeze them unbaked. They I can bake them in the airfryer or oven as I want them. I mostly stay away from pastry, but filo layered with a little olive oil spray rather than melted butter is ok. I was also given a couple of large zucchini and am still considering what to do with those.
    Normally I have my own veggie patch and am the one trying to give away veg. I didn’t plant a veggie garden this year as I want to get the raised veggie beds installed in autumn and ready to go with a cold weather crop of parsnips and legumes. Now that the front garden is finished I’m moving onto to the back yard – this year’s autumn-winter project.

    I’m due a weigh-in at the end of the month so I’m concentrating on being very careful with my food choices for the remaining days of January as I do want to see a loss on those scales and I’ve had plenty of days with poor choices. The combination of tiredness and trips to the bakery for lunch when babysitting have made for some very bad choices.

    I hope you are all doing ok. Take care.

    Anzac, I did a bit of research on that question I raised and it seems it’s not possible to get a positive PCR as a result of the booster. Disregard, sorry! I hope you’re both soon well and that awful holiday is fading to a distant memory.

    The UK govt. lifted the remaining travel tests to return (as of 11 Feb) so we will now have only a simplified passenger locator form to deal with. We have turned a corner with covid, moved into a new phase of living with it and will have one of the most open borders in the world.

    Betsy, hoping Wilbur gets some relief for his stiff joints. LJ, you reminded me of the huge jars of Melrose Deep Sea fish oil that I took for years and years for knee pain relief. Worked like a dream but ugh, that taste! I used to have a spoonful of yoghurt in the other hand ready to chase it down. The capsules never worked for me; I’d take them on holiday and, within two weeks, my knee pain would return. Ha ha, yes, more appealing to cats I bet though I had no idea the same formula could be used for pets.

    Well, it’s time to walk the hounds and then find some accommodation at our next stop, Valencia.

    Good evening everyone, hi KiwiLee, good to see another kiwi on here!

    I’m in week 3 of 5:2 now. I am finding the fast straightforward so far but just back at work this week after a good summer break so will see if that has any impact. I have worked out some good meals for FDs and even some of those we usually have can work if I omit carbs.

    My weight loss continues. I have now lost over 5% of my original weight and have got below the 80cm waist measurement. I was 83cm at the start and now 77cm. In 3 weeks! I am astounded.

    I had a full blood count done the other day to see the state of things and have some baselines to compare changes against in a few months. Just waiting on results.

    My exercise continues to go well. Making the most of getting in some good sea swims and adding some HIIT in, the knee has been fine with that and interval runs. I injured it back in Sept falling over going up stairs and then doing a lot of HIIT to stop lockdown boredom. It then put me out of exercise action for a few months, contributing even more to weight gain which was why I was exercising anyway!

    Anyways I feel like I am winning again now. Have to have a small hold off on swimming and HIIT this week as I managed to cut my hand on glass in the weekend. They decided to steristrip instead of suture, seems to be ok but have to do some things with the other hand and they to avoid getting the dressing wet.

    Betsy I think you mentioned about cat and dog people in the group. I am a cat person and have 3 gorgeous Birman girls – Mischief, Sassy and Sophie. Loads of personality!

    Hope everyone has a great week and keeps as well as possible in this current omicron environment. I think it’s a matter of when not if. Am glad I am triple vaxed now at least.

    MsO, you have really hit the ground running with 5:2. It sounds like it suits you really well. Hope you find the return to work adjustment easy.

    Thin, I have no idea whether the anti-inflammatory properties of fish oil also apply to cats – the research I mention was on humans.
    I remember being told to drink some juice as a chaser the the fish oil – yoghurt would have been better I think. For me the problem was reflux as I have a hiatus hernia. It meant the fishy taste reappeared for hours. I was also quite worried about the calorie count in 20ml fish oil while trying to lose weight.

    Morning all

    Everyone seems to be pretty busy at the moment. I’m on holiday at the moment so I haven’t had much time to peruse the comments but I just thought I’d stop in to report that I was down another 700g last week to sit on 98.7kg! So pleased with my progress so far. Last 3 weeks I’m down 5.2 kilos.

    Have a great day everyone.

    Hello,
    Wednesday already. I’m still on survival mode getting through the heat wave.
    I have managed to get it down to 25C inside overnight and have moved my car over the road into the shade so I can go and buy some watermelon when Northland opens at 10 (Australia Day hours).

    Betsy, I hope your home is keeping cool. Best wishes to Wilbur. And good luck getting to your next nice few kilos gone.

    LJoyce, same to you re coping with the heat. I gather the worst humidity has passed you? (just about to arrive here)

    My last cat absolutely loved it when I dropped a fish oil capsule on the floor. She pounced on it and made happy whirring noises as she demolished it. (Miso: not interested).

    I do hope you were able to enjoy your niblings for that extra day, and are recovering nicely.
    Ooh yum, that is exactly how I do spanakopita too. Don’t they freeze nicely.

    Thin, hooray for working out wordle. Yes, the same one each day for the whole world. Sometimes I do it in a minute, but other times I have to walk away scratching my head and come back to try again. My nephew started yesterday’s wordle in Bendigo and finished it in Canberra!
    (It took me five lines today)
    Good luck finding some wonderful Valencian accommodation.

    Anzac I am so glad you are starting to feel human again, best wishes to Mr Anzac too. My sister and her partner are also recovering well, but still having to take things slowly. Give yourself plenty of time to recover properly!
    It will be lovely to hear how you travel with the CSIRO program. We are all cheering you on ofcourse!

    Cali <3 <3 I am so glad you have that enjoyable evening routine and easy nights. Best wishes to all the household.
    How is it all effecting your eating and your weight?

    I’m going to fast tomorrow. I am glad to report I can fit easily into more of my trousers 🙂

    Ms O, you are acing it! I think you should get the January award for fabulous 5:2ing.
    Hello to the cats. (I told my cat Miso about them and she wasn’t the slightest bit interested 😉 )

    Woot Neil!

    Cheers everyone, best wishes for today.

    Happy ‘Straya Day Aussies!

    LJ, yes, I recall writing to Melrose when I first started fasting to get the calorie count. It took several emails to convince them to reveal it and it was high. I’m thinking 90 cals for the spoon size I was taking but perhaps my memory has that wrong. I do recall it was too much for a FD so I changed to taking it 5 x wk.

    Cinque, it’s a good thing you keep popping up to remind to the try the wordle! Got it in four today. Do you have a strategy? Mine is to include an E and an A in the first word. Booked the Valencia apt for the weekend. Looking forward to that. Dogs are now well-mannered and no longer jumping up. We’re off to the beach today (for an extra walk, there’s no sunshine).

    Neil, fabulous news on your weight.

    MsO – you’re on a roll.

    Good afternoon all

    Neil, excellent loss, even on holiday. Hope you are having a great time with the family.

    Cinque, I loved your description of the cat eating a fish oil capsule. I would imagine the gel coating wouldn’t be very appealing to them though.
    Sorry that you are now enduring the humidity and stormy weather. Unfortunately the humidity and heat continue unabated here. I think by the weekend the clouds, showers and humidity are meant to be clearing and it will just get hotter. Frankly I think I’d be ok with hotter as long as it’s a dry heat – at least the overnight temperatures are better when it’s not humid.
    I tried to do the wordle on my laptop yesterday for the first time but couldn’t find the button to get it to assess my first word – I didn’t think of just hitting enter. Duh! Today I had another go and it took 3 words. As Thin suggested, I too started with a word that included all low scoring scrabble letters. I’m not usually drawn to word puzzles, although I do have several number puzzles I do daily – no surprise there.

    Thin, I had just assumed that fish oil had the same calories as other food oils. All oils that we commonly use have the same kilojoule count – all are 170kj per 5ml teaspoon (40.5cals) – except coconut oil which is 185kj. As I was meant to take 20ml of fish oil, that would have been 680kj per day (162cals). Even on a NFD that’s a lot. I could only accommodate it by using no added fats elsewhere in my meals, which was too restrictive – hence the decision to take 5ml fish oil instead.
    I’m not surprised you have the pooches behaving properly, well done.
    Hope the trip to Valencia is lovely – do you know if there’s any connection between the name and valencia oranges?

    I had a bit of a splurge with online shopping earlier this month and the parcels are all arriving. Yesterday, on a practical note, my N95 masks arrived – necessary and all the stores here were out of stock.
    My glee was reserved for the arrival of a parcel from Peters of Kensington. It contained 9 new glass cloth teatowels, so I can throw out all my old tatty ones and have lovely new ones that match my kitchen – https://www.petersofkensington.com.au/Public/Rans-Glass-Cloth-Set-Light-Green-3pce.aspx
    A metal mincer/grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid so I can evenly mince veg and meat – I miss the reliable old hand crank one I used to have and am hoping this will work in a similar fashion. https://www.petersofkensington.com.au/Public/KitchenAid-Accessories-Metal-Food-Grinder-Attach-5KSMMGAA.aspx I gave serious consideration to the many other attachments, but restrained myself to just buying the one I wanted the most.
    For me the most wonderful inclusion was a French bread baker: https://www.petersofkensington.com.au/Public/Emile-Henry-Bread-Loaf-Baker-Large-Linen.aspx – which I have seriously coveted for quite some time. Unfortunately I cannot trust myself to try it out just yet as I’m trying to have an excellent food week to round off January. A loaf of warm freshly baked bread would put paid to that! I might give it a go in February.
    It’s rare for me to go on a spending spree like this, but as overseas travel is off the cards for yet another year I have decided to treat myself to quite a few new things this year. On the wish list are a recliner armchair and a self-emptying robotic vacuum (amazingly such a beast does exist) – both of which my back will benefit from. I also plan to have much of the built-in storage adapted to better suit my back as I struggle with shelves below knee level. This means new wardrobes with all the hanging in the bottom half, drawers at waist height and shelves above. In the kitchen and laundry the corner cupboard needs a lazy susan or pull-outs and all the lower shelves need to be drawers. I consider these changes to be future proofing my home, as my back will get worse and bending down will become more difficult.
    I spent decades being so very careful with money (out of necessity) and to be planning all this expenditure is a little alarming. It’s not that I mind spending the money this year, I just don’t want to start a pattern of unnecessary spending that I can’t rein in.

    I’m doing a FD today. I made a kefir, berry, psyllium and almond milk smoothie for lunch and will make a tomato and spinach omelette for dinner. With the hot weather I’m finding lunch time smoothies quite enjoyable.

    Hope you are all having a good day. Take care.

    P.S. In case you are wondering why I need 9 tea towels – I change them daily.

    Wordle, I got today’s in four tries. LJ, I didn’t find it intuitive initially – I was waiting to be given the first word! I might not have made it to Bletchley Park. I only like word games that present a challenge (unlike that mindless thing of finding words within a page full of letters) and I’m not sure this is very challenging but I could try to time myself. Similarly, I only do the EVIL sudoku puzzles, as I see no point in just filling in boxes.

    LJ, I think your guess at the fish oil calories would be very close as I believe I took 10mls. You sound similar to us in exercising a lifetime of spending restraint. We’ve always lived within our means and put something aside for a rainy day. Other than a mortgage, we’ve never bought anything that we didn’t have the money to pay for outright (including cars). Well, so now it’s raining, ha ha! Not literally, but we are well into the autumn of our lives. Whilst I have no desire to start collecting ‘things’ after years of ridding of ourselves of useless stuff, we are trying to adapt to the lifestyle that we can now afford – mostly buying ‘experiences’. I say ‘trying’ because ingrained frugal spending habits die hard and I often feel guilty paying for a better style of accommodation or not choosing the cheaper menu items.

    So, I think you too deserve, for example, the shelving that makes your life easier and saves your back and knees. I remember that one of your motivations for buying your current house was to allow you extra spending money for travel – which was immediately curtailed. Bread maker though? – send it back, ha ha! Seriously, you will love it. It would do me in.

    Now I’m going to check your links and discover what glass tea towels could possibly be.

    València oranges are from the region of the same name, LJ. Wow, are they delicious! Also widely grown in California.

    Yesterday’s FD gave me a lovely 1kg loss. Unfortunately, I only seem to be counteracting the poorly executed NFDs at the moment. Note to self: I must do better.

    P.S. D’oh! Glass tea towels – got it! Thought it was a new fabric.

    Good morning from hot Melbourne.
    I am pretty much cactus, in this humid heatwave. Sympathy LJoyce.
    I’d call it unrelenting but we did have a cool breeze ahead of a wimpy thunderstorm yesterday morning for about an hour.

    I had an appt yesterday and was feeling a bit woozy with the heat so I didn’t really fast, but kept under 1000 which is easy to do in the heat, so I think I need to just mix my fast days and NFDs together into two easy small meals a day with some watermelon (that I seem to be tolerating even though it is so sweet) until the weather lets me feel human again.

    Thin, nice to have the dogs respecting you, and all going well.
    Hooray LJoyce’s new tea-towels weren’t made of glass.

    Hmm I think wordle is more calculation than poetry! I just love the ones where I have a few letters and keep going “hmm it can’t be that word with the ‘e’ there, but what on earth could it end with if it isn’t ‘s’ or ‘t’ etc.
    My strategy is variable, but I do tend to sacrifice the second word to rule letters in or out, so I am more likely to get it third try (but usually need another go or more). the only times I have got it second try, I have been really lucky with my first word. I vary my first word on whim too.

    What a lovely time you have had online, and what gorgeous things you purchased! I had never heard of the French bread baker but it would work like the cast iron pot I cook my ‘no knead loaf’ in, which makes for wonderful bread! I am excited to hear how your next baking goes!

    (I am like you with tea towels, in fact I can sometimes go through several in a day.)

    Your other new things sound fab too, and will make life so much easier and more delightful!

    I hope your fast day went well and that the weather today is not too hard to bear.

    PS LJoyce and Thin Have you discovered Suguru?

    Good morning all. Popping back in to say hello. It seems like age since our troubles began ….in fact it’s not even 5 months.
    I won’t even try to catch up with all the posts – I haven’t even been reading recently, but I’ve just glanced through the recent ones.
    Neil, I see you are well and truly back on form – well done.
    Anzac, so sorry to hear you’ve been unwell….I hope you recover soon, and are taking care of yourself. Are you still in the same job?
    I laughed Thin at the notion that all dogs can be trained. Yes, it’s true, but it’s not always straightforward. Some breeds lend themselves to it, others take more perseverance (and maturity). My Rosy is coming into the home straight – still not great on recall, but walks quite nicely on a lead for me (but like your OH Anzac, not for mine).
    Cinque, have you been watching the tennis? It has been a great summer for Australian tennis, with two men’s teams into the doubles finals, and Ash Barty looking so strong. One day we’ll get to the AO. We tried one year (2012, 2013 I think). Got to Melbourne, but the heat was so extreme we stayed in the hotel and watched it on tele.
    Calif, I hope you are doing okay….my thoughts are with you.
    An update on OH ….he’s having immunotherapy and we take each day as it comes. He is feeling quite well, although the treatment tires him. We build our lives around his fortnightly infusions. He is amazing – never a complaint, never a down moment. He started on one treatment but it was so debilitating, the oncologist stopped it. The side effects were so horrendous OH contemplated stopping treatment himself. But … the immunotherapy is not as brutal.
    Yes, LJ, daily teatowels. Sounds like the routine I inherited from my mother. And we can finally leave ours on the kitchen rail, now that Rosy is better trained (mmmm!) and doesn’t run off with them any more.
    OK I’ll finish here, and will try to post more often.
    I see we have some new people on the forum – well done to you for taking such control. I’ll look forward to your posts.
    And hello to my old friends whom I’ve not mentioned in this post. I will catch up soon.

    Cinque, or shall we call you Cactus? Sorry that you’re struggling with the weather. Thanks for the insight into wordle. I did today’s in four. I agree it does depend on the luck of the first word you enter. Can a letter be repeated? For example, if it shows a letter in the correct place, does this automatically eliminate the possibility that it appears elsewhere. Good fun! Off to check Suguru after this. Sounds like a Japanese word for sugar.

    Tea towels: we had a neighbour whose back garden backed on to the alley that we used to cut through to the shops. At any given time, there would be a couple of dozen tea towels on the Hills Hoist (washing line to the non-Aussies). There was never any other laundry. This over 26 years – what were they doing with those tea towels one wonders?

    Lindsay, lovely to hear from you, we’ve all been thinking of you – and mentioning you here. How wonderful that Mr L is feeling well and some suitable treatment has been found. I bet you had some very special Christmas celebrations with family.

    Well, it’s true, we’ve personally never come across a dog that couldn’t be trained in some way. There may well be exceptions and I’ve no experience with Setters which I know to be a highly intelligent and independent breed. When DD had her dog walking and boarding business in high school, we were exposed to many different breeds and learned a lot. Dogs just want to please and they’re so food motivated.

    These huge dogs went absolutely berserk when they saw their leads or us putting on our shoes. Leaping up and almost knocking me over, yelping and howling, so excited. The owner claims it’s because they’re ‘rescue dogs’. Reality is, they have not spent one moment working with them. I know this because the lady told me that they are allowed one treat at the end of the day ‘if they’ve been good dogs’! So how do they know what they’re being rewarded for or why the treat might be withheld? We break the daily treat into six tiny pieces and use them for training all day.

    Fast forward one week, they now both sit when they see the lead. I’m no longer getting smacked in the face by 65kgs of excitement when I reach down to put on the leads. The main offender now heels perfectly on the way to the woods where he gets let off to run for an hour twice a day. Both dogs sit while I put down the food bowls. Have you seen the show, “Dogs Behaving Badly”? Such simple solutions to seemingly momentous issues. It’s the people getting trained, of course!

    Off to do the laundry, mop the floors and clean the bathroom and kitchen. We hope to leave for Valencia immediately after the morning walk tomorrow.

    Cinque, LJ I got the wordle in three today using a slightly different strategy. Wouldn’t it be funny if we guessed it in one?

    thank you for the good wishes. This is one of those times when you just put one foot in front of the other because things change daily so there isn’t really a plan. He likes watching all the different series because that’s been part of our daily routine since the pandemic started.

    Good afternoon everyone.

    Lindsay, so lovely to hear from you. I am glad that they have found a treatment that your husband can tolerate – I hope it has a positive impact.

    Thin, It took me 3 words today too. My first attempt always includes a and e with 3 of the common consonants. If that fails, which it did today, I try a word with “ou” and consonants I haven’t used yet. This has approach usually yields lots of clues, although it pretty much guarantees it will take at least 3 words to find the solution. I came close to getting it in 2 words today as all the letters in my second word were right – unfortunately it was an anagram, so I had some rearranging to do.

    Cinque, I love suguru (the 9×9 version), although I’ve always known it as jigsaw sudoku. I have an iphone app called Cool Sudoku which has daily puzzles for all variations of sudoku and I play my favourite versions most days. My favourites are sudoku killer and jigsaw sudoku (suguru). I particularly love killer as the starting grid is blank, but you have arithmetic clues to help you solve it. https://www.csplib.org/Problems/prob057/

    Betsy & Cinque, there is a program on the ABC Tuesday night on native birds in urban areas. As you are our bird watchers I thought it might be of interest.

    The weather here is finally improving. Still slightly humid but no rain and a bit cooler. It’s humid enough to get me very hot and bothered after a long walk with a friend this morning, but I now have all the doors and windows open to let cool breeze through the house.

    I have had a really good week with food and am hoping I can continue this through February too.

    Hope you are all doing well.

    Hello,

    Lindsay, so so happy to see your post and to catch up with what has been hapening. It must have been awful with the first treatment. Hooray that this one is manageable. Sending all good wishes that it does its work beautifully.

    I have been SO enjoying the tennis. I haven’t watched it for decades, but what a year to get back into it (and what a heatwave friendly interest it is for the viewer). Woot Ash winning last night.
    I wish I could have stayed up to watch the men’s doubles too.
    Have you been enjoying it Betsy?

    Thin, haha the teatowels story. Great subject for a short story writing group.
    I have seen people (on twitter) who amazingly got wordle in one. It would be very cool. But my favourites are the guesses where it is tricky, but I get it with good deductive work.
    Have a lovely trip to Valencia.

    LJoyce, wo!
    That tricky looking sudoku killer! I am going to try when I have the concentration for it. I am glad to see it as I did get a bit bored with sudoku. I was very glad when my daughter introduced me to suguro. Then it took me a fair while to build up the strategies to do the more difficult ones. Yes, 9×9 ones.

    Thanks for the Bird show reminder!

    It got cool here (hooray) and so I took advantage of it to have a fast day yesterday.
    I also nicked out early yesterday to a new Savers that has opened in Preston (some nice finds, mostly tops), it was lovely.

    Even though we have several days this week that are hotter than I like, the nights are okay and some cool days are in sight. I am human again!
    But not quite human enough to have another fast day, but I will go a two nutritious meals day.

    Best wishes to you all

    Good morning all.

    Cinque, yes the tennis was great, although I too was unable to watch all of the doubles as sleep beckoned. Hope you enjoy killer sudoku. Like any logic puzzle, once you get to know it, the puzzles become easier to solve. Although the app that I use often posts daily puzzles rated “diabolical” and all too often I make an error and have to it start again.
    Hope you enjoy the bird program, it looks interesting.

    It’s been a tearful morning here. My cousin, who I was closer to than my own sister, passed away through the night. I’m glad that she’s free of pain now, which had intensified when the cancer moved to her stomach. As has too often been the case during covid, it was so difficult for her husband and daughters who had to work around the tight restrictions on hospital visitors in those final weeks. Initially they weren’t allowed in at all, it was only once they pushed to have her officially classified as a palliative patient that they could visit in final days.
    I’m trying hard to pull myself together as she was always a vibrant happy person so it just feels wrong to remember her with tears.

    Hope you are all well. Take care.

    Good afternoon all.

    Just killing some time here on the computer before watching the Aussie Open Men’s final. Yes, Cinque, I’ve been very much enjoying the Open. Cheered on Ash Barty last night, glad she won. Lovely to see Evonne Goolagong Cawley there to present Ash with the trophy. Didn’t care which of the men’s doubles teams won, as they were both Aussie teams. Congratulations though to the “special Ks” and just hope Matt Ebden is allowed back into WA in time for the birth of his first child. At least he’ll take a $100,000+ paypacket with him. Unfortunately, with the heat, humidity and vegetating while watching the tennis, I’ve regained 2 of the 3 kgs I lost, so it’s back to “work” again tomorrow.

    LindsayL, I’m glad the doctors have found a more tolerable treatment for OH, and I hope it will prove successful.
    I went to the Aussie Open once, a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t particularly enjoyable, unfortunately. It was a hot day and I’d pulled a muscle a couple of days earlier so found climbing stairs very difficult and painful. It wasn’t pleasant walking around so I found a spot in Margaret Court Arena and mostly stayed there. I’ve thought about going since, but decided that you can see the actual tennis a lot more, and better, on the television. For the experience and atmosphere, yes, but to actually see the tennis being played, no, I’d prefer the comfort of home.

    Good to read the various comments from everyone else. Stay safe and well.

    LJ, I can’t remember my first word but my second must have been the same as yours as it was an anagram of the solution (it took me a while but, to be fair, I hadn’t finished my first coffee).

    Morning all

    Back at work this week unfortunately, and I came back to find my work has implemented measures similar to a level 3 lockdown. I’m going to be working from home every other day and there are strict regulations around where we can go at work and mask wearing is mandatory in all areas other than when we’re sitting at our desks. My week away was great, I was at a frisbee golf tournament all weekend, and the last week I was out riding in the hills every morning, got a couple of rounds of frisbee golf in, and took the boys on the Luge and the Shotover Jet. Unfortunately my weight bounced back up over the weekend, but that’s probably because the frisbee golf tournament provided food and it was all starchy/sugary stuff (sandwiches, cake, ice-cream, beers, etc) I’m throwing in an extra fast day today as well as my regular one tomorrow and try to get my weight back down into the double digits I’ve enjoyed the last 2 weeks.

    Ljoyce, I’m really sorry to hear about your cousin’s passing. Sending virtual hugs your way.

    I’ll catch up on the rest of the posts later, but Ljoyce’s comment just stuck out for me.

    Hi there – I have today just started the Fast 800 – the first two weeks look brutal! 😬. Any tips to survive appreciated!

    Afternoon Lisa and good luck with your journey. What part of the world do you hail from?

    My tips would be:

    *Eat as late as you can in the day, I usually eat my first food around 11am.
    *Drink plenty of fluids (water, tea or coffee without milk, herbal teas)
    *Include plenty of fibre and protein in your 800 calories, it will help you feel full longer
    *Don’t try to do too much exercise for the first few days until you’ve been through the “keto flu”
    *Get as much support as you can, check in here or any other sites you have where you can vent/get encouragement or support when you need it.

    Have a great fast day

    Good morning all from a muggy Sydney

    Week one of the CSIRO diet combined with some fasting and 1.2 kilos gone. Yay!

    Welcome to the forum LisaFerris, this is a very supportive and friendly place so if you can hang around with us and there is always an ear to listen and a shoulder to lean on. Another tip is make your FD’s non-negotiable.

    LJ I am so sorry to read about your cousin, my sincere condolences to you and to her family. Tears are ok and keep the fond memories close

    So very glad to hear from you Lindsay and happy that you were able to move away from the first and brutal treatment to something more manageable. What a trooper to never complain – I know I would. You asked about my job and yes, I’m in the same job but managing my work/life balance better this year (so far).

    Sorry about the weight blips Neil and Betsy; you are back on the horse now so it will be gone before you know it

    Glad you enjoyed the tennis Cinque and yay for the cooler weather. We are suffering with high humidity here and it is so debilitating. Poor Maxx just lies on the cool tiles chin down during the day. I’ve actually had the air-con on in the dining room where I work since 8.00am as it was just too hot to concentrate

    Thin, I can’t believe you already have those dogs trained. What was it – three days? We are still trying with Maxx and he is four now!

    Must get back to work, bye for now

    Thank you! I am in NZ. Will definitely be interesting to see how it goes!

    Wordle, that was a tricky one yesterday. I got it in four and it took me forever. Have yet to try today’s or the killer sudoku.

    LJ, sorry for your loss. It’s been so hard on families throughout covid in one way or another but especially in terms of visiting the sick in hospitals or elderly in nursing homes. A relief that your cousin didn’t have to end her days alone so that’s comforting.

    LisaF, welcome to the forum. I do have 7+ years of experience with 5:2 so I ought to be able to provide plenty of advice but I hesitate to write any tips as I have no idea about Fast800 or any of Dr M.’s subsequent schemes. So I’ll echo Anzac’s tip to make FDs non-negotiable. Don’t let anyone or anything derail them.

    Anzac, yippee for the weight gone. Re: the doggos – it was only two very basic commands, sit and heel. The ‘sit’ command was used before putting the food bowls down and in order to attach the leads without getting smacked in the face. ‘Heel’ was essential to avoid getting pulled sideways and wrecking my knees. The owners are back and I’m guessing they won’t be following through. Both dogs are entire which I found curious for ‘rescue’ dogs. By contrast, the dog we cared for at Xmas was very well trained but DD couldn’t resist teaching him a new trick. Do you have the programme, “Dogs Behaving Badly”?

    Betsy, Cinque, glad you enjoyed the tennis.

    Valencia is exactly as I imagined. We spent the entire day yesterday walking around Old Town. It’s so vibrant – parades, bands, buskers and al fresco tapas bars and restaurants. The architecture is fascinating. The streets are lined with ornamental orange trees so it’s really colourful. People seem very covid-aware with most, including children, wearing masks in the street. Our apt, smack bang in the centre of a hipster neighbourhood, has a vinyl record player which is fun.

    Good morning everyone,

    Welcome LisaFerris! How are you surviving your Fast800 so far? All power to you.

    LJoyce, so sorry to hear about your dear cousin, https://i1.wp.com/suntrustblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Short-Condolence-Message.jpg?fit=1000%2C641&ssl=1

    Re puzzles, they heard your call! https://nerdlegame.com/

    Betsy, did you stay up for the tennis men’s final? Too late for me, but I would have loved to watch.

    Neil, I hope you have worked off the frisbee food and are settling into the new covidsafe regulations. Cheers for getting back into those double digits.

    Anzac, hooray for making that work life balance a better one for your health!
    Yes, re the humidity, I just wilt too.

    Thin, Valencia sounds wonderful fun!

    I’ve got cooler weather today, so I am hoping to get some things done. Fast day tomorrow, but I will make today the best little Non Fast Day possible!

    Cheers all

    Wow, had a fast day yesterday, was peeing all the time, and today weighed in down 2.7 kilos in one day. I weighed in at 99.6kg. that’s a lot of water weight! I have my second fast day today and then it’s my weekly weigh-in tomorrow so I’m hoping for a few hundred more grams.

    Wordle, got today’s in about 15 seconds. Lucky first guess.

    Cinque, intrigued that the men’s final was too late for you to watch when you’re in the same time zone. How late did they play?

    Neil, fingers crossed.

    Good evening all

    I weighed this morning to see what impact basic 5:2 in January has had – down 2kg. Given there were some very poor NFDs in the middle of the month I’m happy with that. Now I just have to continue it in February.

    I spent the afternoon with my cousin’s husband and daughters (and their spouses & kids). It was an emotional time but nice to be together.

    Neil, excellent loss in a day.
    I remember the Shotover Jet – I went on that in Queenstown. Hope the boys had a great time.

    Betsy, good to hear at least one of us has the stamina to stay up for the tennis. I’ve never been in person and after your comments, I’m not sure it would be for me – I hate hot weather.

    Cinque, thank you for the kind thoughts and also for the nerdle – I had fun solving that one.

    Thin, it was an evening game – finished after 1am I believe. I only managed to watch 2 sets – I figured Nadal was done for and I might as well get some sleep.

    LisaF, hope Fast800 is going well for you. I’ve used 5:2and Fast800. The second achieves much faster weight loss but it takes lots of careful planning and can make socialising challenging. On Fast 800 I tend to eat a light meal for lunch and a filling dinner and try to allow enough calories for a piece of fruit as a snack. As has already been mentioned, eating enough protein and high fibre carbs helps as it helps you feel full for longer. I’m usually pretty heavy handed with the veg.

    Anzac, very pleased to hear that the CSIRO plan is working well. You could use a positive outcome after the difficulties of recent weeks.

    Tomorrow I’m meeting a friend for a walk and lunch, although I have asked if we can buy something portable from a cafe and take it to the park as I don’t want to remove my mask to eat inside a cafe.
    On Thursday afternoon I get my covid booster which will hopefully provide a little protection.

    Morning all

    Weigh-in went well. I was down another 600g after my second back to back fast day and I’m now sitting on 98.8 kilos. Moving in the right direction.

    I see you’re all talking about wordle. My brother is a big fan. I tried it a couple of times, got it both times reasonably easily and haven’t bothered since

    Ljoyce, well done on the January loss. Yes my boys had fun during our trip, the poor dears have school starting again tomorrow. That will be a shock to the system having to get out of bed before 1pm again. Very sensible eating in the park.

    Speaking of Covid measures, I had a rather disturbing request yesterday. I was going into a shop and I was wearing my mask, before I went in I decided to clear the rubbish out of the car, including an old mask I had been using for a week or two. I was about to put it in the bin whena guy came over and asked if he could have it. I told him it was a used one but he said he didn’t mind because he was vaccinated. That wasn’t my concern, but he insisted so I gave it to him and he merrily put it on and went into the shop. To me that’s like using someone else’s toothbrush 🤮

    Neil, good grief, what a strange thing to ask of you. Even worse than using your toothbrush I’d have thought!

    LJ, that’s a funny time to put on the tennis final when even the punters in the host country have a struggle to stay up to watch it. Hurray for naked 5:2 and a 2kg loss. Good job.

    Neil, I once spent six months in Queenstown, it was a love interest. We met while I was hitch hiking to Christchurch for the Dire Straits concert. You probably weren’t yet born! The man in question owned the competitor company to Shotover Jet. So I did a lot of jet boating. I think I was the only person living there who didn’t ski.

    We arrived at our second pet sitting gig yesterday. Such a contrast in dogs, I can pick both of these up at the same time. They are so easy and the owners very welcoming.

    Hi all from a slightly cooler Alexandra!

    What a relief we’ve cooled down and also lost some of the humidity that was beginning to creep in too, although I do feel for the west coasters with the heavy rainfall they are experiencing, it seems to be all or nothing!?

    My weight seems to be plateauing at the moment, but then I feel I’m not trying too hard, note to self, must try harder!

    Just a quick pop in as we are meeting up with a friend for coffee soon, but I had to laugh at your post Thin, ‘a love interest’ hahaha I looked up that concert, wow, 64,000 fans and you were one of them!! Never realised they had played here. A band or solo artist I would seriously pay good money to see now! Always loved their music. Good luck with the new two dogs, watch you don’t tread on them? In answer to your recent question, we only use Kiwi House Sitters as only done it whilst here but they do have sister companies in other countries that we will link up with if we ever get out of here. Hopefully could be on the cards for later this year after todays latest announcements, just need to wait and see.

    And Neil, yes, I was in fruit heaven, I’m surprised I don’t look like a walking apricot/peach/nectarine? Not forgetting the greengage plums of course. Haven’t done much with berries this year, doesn’t seem to have been a good season for them, spring too wet I think, but still enjoying the cheap avo’s. Well done with the weight loss, you’ve obviously nailed what ever it was that was stopping you from getting back down again. I do still think a lot of it is just head space, not much of that going on here at present.

    We are back up to Bannockburn next Monday to “mind” the POP whilst the hostess goes into hospital for a few days, then off down south for a couple of weeks before heading back up to house sit again for a couple more weeks, same house. I am reading all your posts most days even if I don’t get to post, doing Wordle every day, my best is two lines but I seem to be averaging 3.

    Watching a great TV programme presently called 1883, a western, (unusual for us) but finding it really good. German immigrants crossing the US plains to Texas in said year, small pox was rampant as were bandits and Red Indians. If anyone gets the chance to watch the new Kenneth Brannagh movie Belfast, do, it is excellent.

    Must go, coffee’s calling, hi to all I haven’t mentioned including the newbies,

    Turn

    Hi Everyone,

    Haven’t posted for ages!

    Hope you’re all doing well and getting through this time OK.

    Update: just ‘holding steady’ which means bumping up and down within a 1.5kg range, and that 9-10kgs over the goal weight I achieved late 2016, mostly put on during the last 2 yrs. Still not out of my ME/CFS relapse yet but will slowly get there. Not a full relapse fortunately.

    Waving to you all,
    Merry

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