Hang in there Quacka, I’m sure we’ve all been in the “another reset” boat

You can keep your protein up while fasting if you do the 600 calorie/800 calorie fast. you just have to prioritise protein in your meal, Start with a couple of hundred grams of chicken breast, beef, cottage cheese, etc, chuck in a whole lot of low cal veggies like celery, broccoli, etc and you’ve got a low cal but high protein meal.

A stir fry with 200g of chicken breast, broccoli, celery, capsicum, courgette and carrot is around 460 calories and 70 grams of protein.

Hello everyone,
It is the start of a hot week here. But I am pretty ready for it. At least it is all days in the thirties and not the forties.

Lindsay, I am so sorry to hear of Mr Lindsay’s scare. How hard his body must be working to try for equilibrium. It is good that family members are getting a better idea. Best wishes to you all.

Quacka, it is so confusing when there are conflicting health things you want to do to make life better. It is paralyzing. I love Neil’s response. All power to you having high protein fast days.

Better to do that than be fallen off the wagon! Yay for checking in here to log your progress, we will be cheering you all the way.

Sending best wishes to everyone

Hi Everyone

Well it’s nearly 2pm and my reset FD is going very well. Thanks for all the encouragement xx

I will be following that advice Neil, thanks. I think 600 calories is a more reasonable amount for me than the 500 calories I used to do. I have to make this work for me and so I will.

This morning I did something that I very rarely do. I was at home (not at the gym) so I made myself a “start the day” drink (usually it’s a cup of tea). I squeezed half a lemon, added a pinch of salt and added water to about 3/4 full. I followed this with plain water as I know that lemon is acidic on the teeth which is why I rarely have this. I haven’t felt hungry until about half an hour ago and I’m wondering if it was the salt that helped with that. I just had a cucumber with salt on it and am feeling good again. Maybe I’ll try that on future FDs and see how I go.

Lindsay, hope hubby is ok now. It’s very scary when these things happen, especially when there seems to be no cause.

Anzac, I hope you find something soon. Hope you can enjoy this break and focus on looking after yourself. Something will come along!
Regarding the weights, I have been working to change my mindset that I am not exercising unless I am working up a big sweat doing cardio! These days I mainly walk or cycle for my cardio and lift weights. A couple of weeks ago we were out walking in our village and one of the houses had three bikes out the front for free. OH found the best one for me and we wheeled it home. He has cleaned it up for me and so yesterday we went for a nice (long for me) bike ride. I could hardly walk afterwards and am still feeling it today lol. My legs are fine but all the tightness is in my back. Goodness me, reminds me how long it has been since I rode a bike outdoors! I really enjoyed it though. We cycled from one village to another, has a swim and then cycled back. I could do that again anytime 🙂

Hi Cinque. Stay cool in this summer heat we are having. I am loving it!

Here we go again, on word with copy and paste.

Very anxious time here now as we have a large bushfire in the hills next to us. We’re in the middle of a heatwave and yesterday the temp on our back verandah peaked at 45.9. There were several dry lightning strikes, and this appears to be the cause of the fire. We noticed and smelt the smoke around 4pm. As the country has deep gorges and rugged terrain hills, most of the area is inaccessible by vehicle.

By 10pm the ridgetop was ablaze with red and the smoke very thick. Thankfully there was no wind last night and the same this morning, although it’s predicted to pick up as the day goes on, and in a southerly direction which is not good for us. There is one other smaller town that is a lot closer to the fire than we are so I’m praying for them.

It has been a very restless night, getting up regularly to check. I do have the alert apps on my phone and it has been pinging with updates which is reassuring. I also have the emergency services scanner app and I can see where they have been gathering extra crews together from all the smaller towns in the region in preparation for today’s firefighting efforts, as well as local volunteers who know the terrain very well.

This morning I can see another area of very thick dense smoke billowing from the easterly side of the hills but I’m not sure if this is part of the same fire or a new outbreak, it’s difficult to tell. Either way, it’s growing in size.

The country is so dry, I can’t recall having any rain in the last 6 months or so apart from a very light sprinkle a few times. The 7 day weather forecast is temps in the low 40’s so it’s not looking good.

Miss GDay starts year 12 today (online home schooling as she has been for several years now) so she is anxious on all fronts. I must go and make sure she is up and getting ready. Cross your fingers for us. I do hope the CFS call in the aerial water bombers, its would seem the most logical move given the terrain and the weather conditions were are facing this week.

Some positive news just now, this morning we have 7 aerial water bomber planes as well as observational aircraft here to fight the fire

Morning all,

Well I’ve been AWOL for a while, it’s been stupid busy at work, and I’ve been absolutely flat-stick for the last week. Property sales are through the roof at the moment, and that means lots of LIM reports to generate, Notices of sale to process, changes of address to process, lots of new customers to create. On top of that our team of 8 has been down to 5 or 6 for the last couple of weeks because one of our workmates was out for a week with covid, and then had a week of annual leave booked, the other workmate has been away because he’s having to deal with the declining mental faculties of his ageing parent.

I’ve managed to get out for a couple of rides in the weekends, and I’ve managed to take my bike in to work a few times, but I haven’t been able to ride nearly as often as I’d like because I’ve been coming home from work absolutely exhausted. We have our national holiday tomorrow, and I’ve taken the Friday off work as well and I’m hoping to go for a 200k ride over 2 days. My weight was down 100g this week, so a bit of a come-down from the kilo I lost each of the last 2 weeks, but it’s not bad considering the week I’ve had.

Gday, that sounds really stressful, we’ve had the opposite over here, where everything is so much greener than I can remember it being at this time of the year. It’s really only been the last week or so we’ve finally started having more settled weather. I hope things are under control now 2 days after you said the planes were fighting the fires.

Quacka, well done on a successful fast day. I’m likely to be skipping mine this week, it’s hard to be fasting when you’re cycling long distances. Last time I cycled the central rail trail I ate all the food I had carried with me for dinner, decided it wasn’t nearly enough and took off to the pub for a 3-egg omelette, bowl of chips and a beer on top of it.

Lindsay, yes looking forward to pounding the pedals more than I have been. The forecast is ideal for my trip. It’s supposed to be partly cloudy, light breeze, and 20-22 degrees. Not too hot, a bit of shade when the clouds come over, and not battling a big headwind, but enough air movement that I’m not stifling.

Anzac, good news that you didn’t slide after taking your eyes off the weight-loss for a while, onwards and downwards now.

Cinque, I hope you got through ok with the heat, I’ve been grumbling about our weather, but I’d much rather be having temperatures in the teens than temperatures in the 40s. At least if you’re cold you can put an extra layer on.

Anyone heard from Thin? She usually posts pretty regularly, but I haven’t seen her post for a couple of weeks now.

Hi all quick update. Day 6 and the fire is still burning. As of yesterday 20% of the national park has been burnt as well as areas outside of the park. We now have 13 aircraft dropping water and fire retardant as well as fire trucks and local farmers with their farm fire fighting equipment. On Thursday our small town was added to the list of towns in the high risk zone. Fire crews and aircraft have come from around the state and interstate. The next few days have temps in the mid 30’s but next week we’re heading back to the mid 40’s again. The airstrip where the planes are based is about 1-2 kms from our house so we have a flurry of activity overhead every day.
On a positive note, I’m 1.1 kg down on my weekly average weigh in today from last weeks weekly average.
Feeling very tired the last few days, not sleeping well this week at all.

Oh, also I found a new snack I enjoy. Korean style marinated eggs. You boil eggs until the yolks are set but still jammy, then peel them and marinate them for 24 hours in a mixture of soy sauce, honey, water, sesame oil, onion, garlic, ginger and chili. They have a delightful umami flavour and are great with some rice and a couple of spoonsful of the marinating liquid.

Hi Everyone

Just dropping in to say a quick hi.

After my successful FD last Monday I managed to do a second one on the Wednesday. I usually find that a lot more difficult but with my new found lemon/salt/water drink I found it just as difficult (easy?) as the Monday one.

Yesterday was start of the new week and my first FD for this week. I am really busy at work at the moment as we have all our new Winter stock arriving and are also working on our Summer orders. This made my FD go easily. Well until I got home and then I was so hungry! We went for a walk and then had an early dinner. I almost couldn’t make it on the walk (it was only half an hour) as I had no energy which is unusual for me on a FD but I felt a lot better after eating.

Weight loss has been a bit slow. Only 800g after week 1. Let’s see what this week brings.

Neil, those kilometres! That’s an awesome cycle. I was really proud of myself for going for a 10km ride last weekend, maybe one day I can build up to half of the kilometeres you are doing in one day! lol

Those Korean eggs sound delicious. My kind of food 🙂

G’day, good to hear from you and well done on the weight loss. I hope the fires are under control soon.

Thin, nice to hear that you are visiting your old home town. Yes, everything is changing so quickly these days. 4 storeys to 90 storeys though is a huge change. Can’t imagine how they got that approved!

Hi Cinque, thanks for your encouragement. Hope that weather is still being nice to you!

I wonder how Lindsay is doing up in Qld. I hope she is safe and ok.

You too G’day, take care!

Chat soon X

Quick update. No positive news, fire still burning and tomorrow’s temp is forecast at 44 but we always end up higher than the predictions. The few days after are cooler temps but strong winds. Last night we could see that the fire has definitely spread wider across the hilltops – we can see it clearly from the back verandah and I’ve also been using binoculars to get a closer view. It’s been 9 days now and the aerial view pictures of the burnt areas that I have seen is just devastating.

Morning all,

Weigh-in today and no change to my weight, but then I wasn’t expecting there to be much since I was eating heaps on my bike ride, and for the couple of day afterwards, my body must have needed it to recover.

Thin, great to hear from you, it must be a bit of a shock to the system to go from winter in the UK to summer in Perth. A 90 storey apartment building is insane, that’s almost as high as the sky tower in Auckland, which is NZs highest building.

Quacka, 800g is nothing to sneeze at for a week, If I was dropping 800g a week I’d be very happy.

Anzac, fingers crossed for your job prospect. I used to swim pretty regularly when I was younger, but I couldn’t handle the monotony of endless laps, which is why I’m pleased I found cycling because I know I wouldn’t be able to stick to swimming as a sole exercise.

G’day, I would send you some of our cool overcast weather if I could, 44 degrees can’t be good for fighting fires. Cali, how are the fires over there going? I heard that they think that some of them were deliberately lit. I just can’t comprehend the kind of person who would deliberately light a fire that has killed numerous people and animals, destroyed huge stretches of land, and caused millions of dollars of property damage.

Well I hope you’re all well and I’ll catch up with you again later.

Good Morning Everyone

Day after 2nd FD and feeling really good today. I have just had a big healthy breakfast of yoghurt, banana, hemp seeds and a little protein powder.

FD went well yesterday and today my weight actually reflects that. 77.6kg. That makes 2.3kg loss since Monday last week. Pretty happy 🙂
Not sure when real fat loss takes over from water weight loss but surely it must have started by now so I’ll take it.

Better start work now. Hope you all have a lovely, safe weekend xx

Fasting for the next few days, had my last meal ( salad and a smoothy) at 4pm yesterday arvo so hoping to go through to Saturday lunchtime.

Morning all

Gday, well done on the fast so far, keep up the good work. Fingers crossed that the fire is under control now. Talking about muscle building, I was talking with a young German couple at Lawrence when I did my ride and told them I’d ridden 100k to get there. The guy was saying that it’s the best thing you can do for your old age to build up your legs when you’re younger. I agreed and told them that a recent study released over here had shown that if you’re a male over 50 and riding your bike to work every day you lower your chance of cancer by 40% and diabetes by 45%. He said “Well, you’re there already, but much younger.” I was thinking “not that much younger, I’m turning 47 this year.” But I was pretty chuffed, I don’t know how old he thought I was.

Quacka, great work on losing 2.3 kilos, that’s an amazing result, especially as a percentage of your weight.

Lindsay, I really hope you have a great time in Bali

Have a great weekend everyone.

Afternoon Cinque, the eggs can sit in the marinade for a few days in the fridge. I boiled 6 of them and ate a couple a day for the next few days.

Neil, when you mention the umami marinated eggs, it reminds me of pickled eggs, something they used to have in big jars in bars or taverns in the midwest, but that I rarely see on the west coast. I’ve made them at home a few times, just hard boiled eggs marinated in vinegar and occasionally some spices like dill. They lasted a long time in the refrigerator. Eggs have become very expensive because of the avian flu, and sometime in short supply. Your mention of umami flavour reminds me of something more recent as well, not with eggs but with fried crispy chopped garlic and hot chili oil, with sesame, salt or soy, sugar and a few other things mixed in, depending on the brand. My DS read about it on the internet, found it on Amazon, and has become addicted to it. You can put it on any food, but she spreads a bit on sourdough bread. It’s a unique flavour. Have any of you seen it there? It’s so expensive. I’ve been trying to make my own. Chopping and frying the garlic seems like a lot of work because it has to be watched so carefully so it doesn’t burn, but I buy big container of dry minced garlic which it crunchy and holds its own with the chili oil. I’ve gotten pretty close.

G’day, thank goodness the fires are reaching containment. I hope they are completely out soon. The ones we had in Southern California were a long distance away. They’ve had lots of rain this week and now that is causing problems with mudslides where all the vegetation was burned. I can’t even imagine what it will do to fire insurance in the state which is already very high.

I have to get serious about my weight and fasting again. Stress can’t be an excuse because the extra 10 kg is making me feel awful. It’s not only eating more than I need, it’s lack of exercise. I spend hours feeding OH and sitting with him. It seems like I’m busy most of the time, but cooking doing things in one large great room in our house doesn’t involve much walking around. I don’t move enough which means I don’t burn enough calories.

Lindsay, I hope you have a wonderful time in Bali. Such an exotic place to visit! And no need to worry about your comments on this country’s politics. Much of what’s happening is unbelievable. I dread reading the news in the morning.

Cinque, good to read your posts. The high summer heat sounds almost good to me these days. It’s been a very cold January and February. It’s been near or below freezing a lot of the nights. I think I prefer the high temps to the low. It would be nice if was just Spring and Fall all year.

Well, time for sleep. I hope you all are having a good day.

Good evening all,

Anzac, thank you for the welcome back. That’s so rude that employers don’t bother replying to applicants. It must be very discouraging not knowing one way or the other. I’m hoping you and Mr A. can realise your dream to move north and start treating the lucky Queenslanders to some of your delicious fare even sooner than planned. How nice it will be to leave that stressful banking industry behind.

Quacka, good job on your loss so far. You’ll be all trimmed down for your next trip.

CalifD, lovely that you are back with us again. The fires in California are already having an impact on the cost of fire insurance in Western Australia, if not the whole country. Insurers buy their policies on world markets. Many home owners are uninsured in Australia due to flood or fire risk (past events, world events, or any other excuse) which seems very frightening to me. The area we’re considering is bush fire prone (where my OH has a lot of experience with aerial fire fighting) so it’s not a factor that we can discount lightly. It sounds similar to what GDSA experiences in SA. On the other hand, I don’t feel I can return to living in inner suburbia after experiencing life on a narrow boat. I need a view, plenty of space and a good distance between me and squawkers in their swimming pools. The other factor is the soaring housing costs and whether this is all a big bubble that could burst with changing world economies.

Lindsay, thank you. We haven’t abandoned our watery life, we love it. I suppose it’s a holiday, albeit an expensive one. We’re primarily taking care of business in Perth and exploring alternative storage and/or shipping options. The volume of our ‘stuff’ has been confirmed at 9.7 cubic metres which I’m quite proud of – not bad for three people over thirty years.

It’s also been fun to see friends and visit our old haunts. Yesterday, OH went flying with a friend and then went to visit the plane that he (OH) built himself in California and brought to Australia. The new owner has fitted it with jet engines and OH was keen to see it. Meanwhile, DD and I watched two dolphins swimming in Matilda Bay and then caught a train to Fremantle and went to the long-standing free concert at the Fremantle Arts Centre which featured Peruvian Jazz. Kookaburras are going right off in the trees by our apartment. We saw two large kangaroos on our way back from the hills the other night. So, it’s been a good old Aussie adventure so far.

Lindsay, enjoy your trip to Bali. There are some things cheaper here in Oz. I bought a new MacBook Air $500 cheaper than I could have in the UK. No luxury really – my MacBook Pro was 14 years old! And, although it’s the most expensive passport in the world, I saved $180 on renewing mine within Australia – It came very quickly and has some cool new design features. Quacka, you might have one?

Neil, what a ride – and how young you are! How’s it going with your son’s driving lessons?

Cinque, there seems to be a shortage of eggs in WA. Avian ‘flu someone said. I hope you are managing well and enjoying your family. I thought of you this week because I have a giant pile of clothing for the op shop. It’s fairly decent quality such as a lovely woollen coat but, after ten years of being size 10, I think it’s safe to say that I will not grow back into my size 14 clothing. 59.7kg this morning. FDs are all over the place due to socialising but I’m determined to get in one per week while here.

I feel I’ve missed someone. Turn, are you still here? How’s the tiny home building? Hello to all.

Afternoon all

Funny how one day can change so much, Sunday I was feeling pretty good, yesterday I didn’t eat enough protein and too many carbs, now I feel all bloated and yuck. At least the weather has been pretty good recently and I’ve been out to ride some trails after work. Today it’s changed though, and we’re scheduled to get some thunderstorms, so that will be interesting for my ride home.

Thin, driving lessons are going ok, although my boy’s main fault is he thinks he’s better than he is. A few times I’ve had to yell at him to slow down approaching an intersection, or grabbed the wheel when he’s almost drifted into a car on the side of the road, but he’s already talking about borrowing the car to get to school, or taking passengers once he’s got his full licence.

Quacka, keep up the good work, I’m sure the dresses will fit perfect by the time you get around to your trip.

Anzac, hopefully something will come up soon, I still can’t get over the fact that businesses aren’t even contacting unsuccessful applicants to let them know.

Cali, our eggs were quite expensive over here for a while, because the government brought in new regulations around animal welfare, and a few egg farms decided just to shut down rather than pay to bring their farms up to compliance. But now that the rest have got to compliance and ramped up production, the price has been coming down again, on special the cheap eggs are around $5 or $6 for a dozen. It’s still the cheapest form of animal protein. We use around 500g of meat for a meal for 4 of us, so it’s around $10-$13 for lamb, beef, pork, $6-$8 for chicken, but we use around 8 eggs for a meal for 4 of us, so that’s only around $4-$5.

Well weigh-in tomorrow, so hopefully my carbs from yesterday haven’t derailed my weigh-in this week.

Have a good one all

Well done Neil.

I’m also down this morning, nearly back to 77.6kg that I was after two FDs last week.
I’m on my second FD for the week, making it a B2B for me. I don’t have a great track record with B2B but I was motivated after seeing the scale number this morning, plus I’m not sure I can fit one in on other days this week.

Almost 12 noon and I’m having a black coffee. I do have a low cal lunch with me so I should be able to make it thru today. I know dinner tonight will be low cal too so I have a bit of wiggle room with lunch.

Roll on “me being able to fit into my dresses” lol

Have a great day everyone xx

Morning all. A quick post from Bali, where I’ve been massaged, manicured, pedicured, waxed and facialed (if such a word exists) and I still don’t look any younger! Never mind. I don’t have scales here, but am eating gently, and my OH doesn’t have to ‘help’ me into my togs, so that’s a plus. That said, they are a much smaller size, left over from my first weight loss, so giving them a hitch at the back has been necessary in more recent times…but not any more.

It’s lovely here – and we are doing absolutely nothing. No temples, no trips to islands. Just mornings on the verandah of our villa, looking out to sea and reading, before a mid-morning breakfast (still sticking to the 12 hour minimum fast rule), a massage or whatever, followed by a swim, a walk and lunch, back for a snooze, and a G & T on the verandah, before a late lunch.

Quacka 400 grams is a good loss and well done on the B2B fast days.
Neil 300 grams is not to be sneezed at. I’d rather lose a third of a kilo than put it on.

Calif my OH, being Glaswegian and a beer drinker at that in his younger days, always had a pickled egg on his nights out. Doesn’t Neil’s recipe sound delicious. And healthy, too. re price of eggs…I buy mine from our butcher – free range and always fresh. They’re now $9.99 a dozen for the large 800 gram ones, but as Neil says, a cheap protein.

Thin sounds like you’ve slotted right back in to Australian life. I needed a new passport – $400. Then needed to pay an extra $100 to get it in time, because I hadn’t realised I had less than 6 months on it. But when get back I have to fork out 550 UK pounds to get my Right to Abode in the UK transferred to the new passport. Daylight robbery!

Cinque haven’t seen a post from you for a while – hello to beautiful Melbourne.

Off now for my beachside breakfast where I’ll be joined by a couple of beach dogs looking for a handout. All super friendly and looking very well cared for, and I notice most have been desexed (the boys, that is, although I do see quite a few of the females with signs they have recently had puppies so not all the boys).

I am not even going to try to edit my post to correct my ‘late lunch’ to ‘dinner’. Last time I tried to edit, I lost the lot.

2.

Anzac, haha what fun sharing computers with Mr Anzac.

It is so weird to know you are having trouble finding a job when I have seen you through the years being so courted, and being such a good and expert worker. Weird, but the frustration must be worse. Is the universe telling you it is time to head north and enjoy the new life you want? Even if you haven’t quite the savings you planned on?

I am looking forward to the longer post when Mr Anzac lets you have the computer again 😉

I really hope you can get back into 5:2 and all the good things now.

Thin, I do love how you make the most out of wherever you are. Your Perth adventures sound wonderful What a lot of people you must have there to catch up with.

We had news of another Victorian egg farm shut down due to avian flu. It was near the other two. I did get my eggs (thanks Aldi). Not cage eggs and $5:70 a dozen, I think it was, which is fine.

Ooh the opshop will love your donations! I hope they all find people who need them, and who will appreciate them fully.

I wonder if you have missed LJoyce? She hasn’t posted since Christmas and I have missed her. Hopefully she is doing something wonderful.

But missing you too Turn!

Quacka, woot for fast days, even btb, and yay for lots of exercise, even if it makes you hungry.
It is so hard to embrace that ‘not feeling full’ but it is the best state to be in, apparently.
I’m going to try and do some embracing of it today too. 😀

I am wearing one of my summer dresses that only fit if I haven’t been overeating. And matching sandals (both excellent op shop finds). Because I suffer from cold feet, the one consolation of a 38 degree forecast is that my feet can cope in sandals and I can wear a dress (I just can’t carry off a dress with any other footwear). So where did I go in my nice dress up? Off to check out a couple of op shops ofcourse! Haha.

Cinque, ha ha, with the op shopping comments. It was SO hard to find a place to take the trunkful of stuff we had accumulated as all the bins for clothing and shoes were removed during covid when people apparently did weird things with the contents. We finally found a Vinnies where we went with armfuls of clothing. What a relief as OH kept changing his mind whenever he saw what he’d discarded. Such a hoarder. I suffer from cold feet too. (In the literal sense – do you recall the excellent 90s UK comedy series, ‘Cold Feet’?).

Yesterday, we took our family friends to their favourite winery as a partial thank you for loaning us their car for our stay. The bill was in the hundreds but it was a beautiful day with kangaroos in the surrounding bushland doing their unique locomotion thing. The sunlight on the gum trees is so beautiful. Red-tailed black cockatoos carrying on in the trees with a clear blue sky backdrop.

This morning we were up at 5ish to watch the start of the Perth to Rottnest swim. We had friends among the shark-spotting kayaking support teams. What a spectacle. All dressed in humorous disguises so their respective swimmers could recognise and follow them – Where’s Wally, Traffic Cones, Sharks, Jesters, Unicorns, Disco Ball hat, etc. There are so many super fit people living in Perth – thousands took part in the actual swim which is over 19km.

Particularly striking was that, despite the multi-cultural city that Perth has become over forty years, the demographic of tens of thousands of participants, supporters and spectators was, without exception, WASP. Quite extraordinary to realise that there has been no integration whatsoever in some respects of intrinsic Australian lifestyle. I have seen this in England wrt the Queen’s Jubilee and King’s Coronation where street parties were held in every town and village up and down the country. How bizarre to move to a new country but fail to embrace any of its culture or traditions.

After this, we went to a cafe where people were happily shelling out $20 for an acai bowl. I have to say that Australians do seem a lot healthier and fitter than the British. The expanse of white sandy beach was superb. After the crowd dispersed, we walked its length and found just one piece of litter – a number sticker that must have come off someone’s kayak.

Lindsay, I’ve never heard of the Right of Abode option – why do you need this? Might you live in Scotland? The PO tried to persuade me to take the speedier (and more expensive) option for the passport renewal but I knew it wouldn’t take the stated 4-6 weeks so I declined. The passport arrived within one week.

Fortunately, Aussie Border Force is sensible about allowing its citizens to enter the country with less than 6 months’ validity whereas I was once held in a back room in Indonesia because DD’s (then a small child) passport had 5 months, 3 weeks and 2 days remaining and they saw this as an opportunity to relieve me of some baksheesh. However, I held my nerve and told them I had nothing to give them so they could feel free to send us back to Oz if they wanted. We had onward tickets and I was hardly going to leave my small child behind as an overstayer in Bali. After a 4 hour stand-off, they gave up and let us pass. Stupid rule and none of their business in my view. Your passport validity is a matter between you and your government.

Morning all

Quacka, Go you! You’re on a roll.

Thin, I used to swim up to 3kms each morning, 19kms is something I wouldn’t even consider, let alone in shark infested open waters. People are amazing.

Cinque, Ha! Yes any exercise you’re not used to doing can leave you pretty sore. I’ve been biking a lot the last few years, but a couple of years ago I tried taking up running as well. I didn’t have any problem with the fitness side of things, but the following day my thighs were so sore I couldn’t stand up. I guess running uses the muscles in a different way to cycling.

Lindsay, I hope you’re enjoying your trip to Bali.

I’ve been feeling a little off colour, my nose has been blocked up the last 2 weeks, and when I went to mow the lawn in the weekend I was a wheezy snotty mess. I guess there’s something flowering at the moment that’s triggering my hayfever. The weather was a bit blah in the weekend so I spent it doing some preserving. I made a big batch of plum jam from the plums off our tree, and got a few Agee jars of pears bottled from our pear tree.

Well, have a good one everyone, I’ll check in tomorrow for my weekly weigh-in

Neil, I’ve never been much of a swimmer although my mother was, and DD is, a competent swimmer When OH and I first landed in Perth in our campervan, knowing not a soul, we sat on the beach on Christmas Day because that’s what we understood Aussies do. We exchanged our presents on the beach. I’d given him a book entitled, ‘Dangerous Creatures of Australia’ and he’d given me, ‘Crocodile Attack’. We were too terrified to go in the water. I think of sharks when I’m in a swimming pool, let alone the ocean. But we carried the tradition of going to that beach every Christmas morning. DD ultimately learned to surf and I’d sit on the beach looking out for sharks.