Tuesday

the tide was out.


So much to say.

So little inspiration.

Thank god daylight saving ends this weekend.  FINALLY.  It is ridiculous that we have to have 6 months on and 6 months off.  The government must have counting issues.

Friday - again!

Where do the weeks go.  It's APRIL next week, for gawd's sake.

In no particular order:

• I turned down another job after sort of accepting it.  I am learning to trust my gut feeling and this just didn't feel right.  It has cemented in my mind that there is a certain area of nursing for which I am NOT cut out.
• I am really excited about training in the fitness area - should start in July ( have I mentioned this?)
• Himself is OK physically but crap mentally
• I had lunch with some women from a group I met on the WW message boards.  They were great and about 20 of us (Australia wide) are meeting in Adelaide in August.  Can't wait.
• I saw the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo today.  It is subtitled but a brilliant film.  Usually I hate seeing a film based on a book I loved but this was fantastic.  I think the subtitles followed the dialogue better than the translation did.  
• I think I'm battling a virus - am feeling dizzy and very ordinary so will toddle off and veg.

Hopefully next week I will be a more attentive blogger.

Friday - praise be.

It's been a shit of a week.

Himself ended up in hospital with chest pain (same as happened a couple of years ago).  He's back home and OK.  I think it's more head than heart.  But what would I know?

One has admitted he has a serious problem with alcohol.  He is doing a fantastic job dealing with this but it still hurts to see a kid in distress.

Two is having major career issues.  Doesn't know what he wants to do and is fed up earning the bare minimum.

Three is heading for some challenges with his latest girlfriend.  I hope he can stand his ground.

I gained 1.2 kgs at WW this week (no surprises there).

I am enjoying the immunisation stuff but need to make some decisions about future career paths.

Next week will be better.  It has to be.

*******************

Tomorrow is Saturday...

Dr Teacher and his new lady are coming for dinner.
New bedroom furniture may be delivered (if not tomorrow then next week - new bed ensemble coming on Monday).
Saturday is the start of my WW week so look out fat cells, I'm coming after you.
Catching up with some WW online friends on Sunday.

Next week is looking better already!

This is why I love living where we do

We often see pelicans flying overhead.  These two were taken from the path that runs along the river behind our house.

I found my camera cable!

Whenever Himself sits down at his computer Thomas plunks down on his arm!  If Himself takes too long fiddling around Tom will sit and meow until Himself sits down and lets Tom on his arm.  And if something takes Tom's fancy he will swat the screen.

Remember I told you Himself was getting a tattoo for his 60th?  Well, this is it.  It continues right under the arm with more lotus flowers and water effects.  Not everyone's cup of tea (as Mother In Law keeps reminding us!) but I like it, Himself likes it and the boys like it.

Tomorrow morning I'm up at 5.00 to drive into the city to collect vaccines and be at my first immunisation gig by 7.15.  I'm working til 11.30.  Then on Thursday I'm working in the afternoon.  I have 9 of these ranging in numbers of vaccinees and hours allocated.  I've toyed with the idea of signing up with several agencies but thought I might get overwhelmed.  There is one other agency who might contact me and if I'm available I'll do a bit of work for them.  I also got a call today from the woman I spoke to back in January about doing home health assessments for local GPs.  That will kick off shortly and I can do them when I feel like it.

I am also investigating becoming a personal trainer.  My initial reaction when my PT suggested it was that I was too old, too overweight and too unfit.  As he pointed out women of a certain age prefer to be trained by someone who has trodden the same paths they have.  So that's another iron in the fire.  The immunisation work will only be for a couple of months; the health assessments are ongoing but I don't know how many will eventuate and the PT work would probably take some time to establish.  But I feel positive about my job prospects and at the moment it looks as if I can stay out of the hospital environment which is great.

We are experiencing a lovely late summer/early autumn spurt of warm weather.  Coolish nights but warm days - bliss.

Yesterday One and I went for a walk.  It was meant to be a short walk along the beach as we had a bit of a heart to heart about some issues that have been troubling him.  We walked for over 3 hours!  I haven't worked out how far we went but it was a lovely LONG walk.   Inappropriate footwear (thongs/flipflops) left me with a doozy of a blister on the sole of my right foot but One and I have agreed to do it again when we are both wearing decent shoes and carrying water!

And now I'm heading back out to the balcony to continue reading my book in the late afternoon sun.

Wild Weather!

Melbourne had a massive storm yesterday.  Fortunately where we live was not badly affected which is unusual as we are usually in the path of weather when it blows up from the southwest.  This seemed to come more from the North.  Buildings were damaged, cinemas evacuated, flooding everywhere and hailstones the size of golf balls!  Two rang this morning to say he had been called into work as they were badly flooded (South Melbourne) and there is a lot of very expensive equipment they were hoping to salvage.  Once the power was restored!  GGF worked last evening and said the queues for cinema tickets were horrendous as three major complexes were shut down due to flooding and they were all directed to her complex!

There is more forecast today and the radar shows a large band to our North but still too far away to work out if it will hit Melbourne or slide away.

I lost another 1.1kgs on Friday taking me to a total of 11.3 kgs lost since I started this on 30th October last year.  Not as fast as I'd like but I keep reminding myself this is the way to do it.  It's still more than 500 gms a week on average.  I'm still waiting for someone who doesn't know I'm on WW to notice but I have received positive comments from those that do know!

The boys and 2/3 girls will be over for dinner.  I have cooked a lasagne but GGF and I will share a fillet steak as my lasagne contains massive amounts of butter and milk and cheese!  I have also made a lemon tart which is a WW recipe and it looks and smells delicious.  Almost dinner party standard.  If it tastes as good as it looks and smells then I will certainly make it for company and just pretty it up a bit.

GGF and I saw Dear John.  It is still not something I would see out of choice but it wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated.  The characters were a bit shallow and the plot was rather weak.  The kids saw Alice in Wonderland and all said it was great so GGF and I will see that next Friday.  She doesn't mind seeing it again.

I might venture out for a walk before the rain hits.  There should be quite a bit of water at the top of the river.

It's Autumn!

In Australia we divide our seasons neatly into 4 equal 3 month blocks.  The fact that the weather seems unaware of this division doesn't matter.  It's officially Autumn so I can live with 30+ celsius days knowing that it IS Autumn and the cooler weather is just around the corner.  And most nights get cool enough to be comfortable.

I've had a reasonable week.  Mother is doing well.  She was moved to rehab on Monday and was dismayed to find she was sharing a room.  To my utter surprise she told me today that they had offered her a single room this morning and she turned it down as her room mate is quite pleasant!  She is working hard at her rehab and should be home in a week.  This is completely opposite to her behaviour 12 months ago when she broke her hip.

I caught up with my ex-colleagues for dinner on Tuesday and it was most pleasant.  And apart from the way in which I left I am not sorry to not be working there.  Nothing has changed.

My PT is on his honeymoon so I have had a couple of sessions with another bloke and he his great.  I really feel that I have worked out.  Which puts me in a bit of a dilemma.  I would love to stay with Mark but that could be really awkward so I need to work out how to either get Matt to train me like Mark does or see if I could do one session a week with each of them.

I played 9 holes of golf on Monday with Sooz.  It wasn't a serious game and I enjoyed it.  I do want to get out more but not at the club just yet.  That is TOO intimidating.

The house got a big clean yesterday and it looks great.  WW with GGF tomorrow (hopefully I will undo the 100gm damage I did last week) and then the movies.  Last week we saw Valentine's Day in Gold Class.  We had a ball.  It was much better than I expected and Gold Class is fabulous.  Tomorrow she wants to see Dear John which would not be on my list as it's meant to be a real tear jerker.  I would rather see A Single Man but can do that by myself one day next week.  GGF gets the tickets for nothing so I really can't complain!  And I'm seeing films I wouldn't normally see.  All the boys and girls are going to see Alice in Wonderland tomorrow evening.  I was invited but it's a late session and I'd feel a bit out of the loop going to see a movie with a bunch of 20 somethings!  That's another one to see on my own, I think.  Unless Two and GGF love it so much they want to see it again as they did with Avatar.

A long weekend this weekend which doesn't affect me but it will be nice to have Himself home for 3 days.  The weather forecast is a bit grim but there is always a book or a jigsaw puzzle or a movie!

And on that note I shall go and hang out the washing.