Old Friends

I can't believe it's already been nearly 3 weeks since I posted the last blog. Time flies. Especially at this time of year!

Exciting happenings at my work (in a round about kind of way). You may remember back in a September blog I mentioned my work colleague Robert Johnston's daughter Kelly entering and winning the Miss South Island beauty pageant? Well, she was in the Miss NZ Queen Of The World competition in October and won that one too! So now Kelly, Robert, and his wife Jenny, have all jetted off to Berlin, Germany, for The Queen Of The World competition. What a great job that would be! Robert is away from work for 3 weeks so I am looking forward to hearing all his stories on his return. He is one proud father. Of course, the comments querying whether he is her biological father are wearing a little thin. Watch this space...

A few weeks ago on a Saturday Claire and I met with Paula at Denny's for lunch before going to a movie. On the drive there down Gasson Street we passed an old friend. It was Timmy!!! For those who don't know, Timmy is a big white Mitsubishi L300 Van that I used to own. He'll always have a special place in our hearts. Claire was driving so I leant across and tooted the horn and we both waved like maniacs. The guy driving looked a little dumbfounded. Timmy would have known though. He looked good. You can imagine how exciting it was for us.

A few weeks ago was Show Weekend here in Christchurch which meant the Friday was a public holiday. It always seems to just break up that long slog between winter and Christmas, and usually the weather is starting to warm up by then too.

This year I decided to head to Picton for the long weekend to see my exclusive man friend Lance. The weather here on the Friday morning had looked promising as I had gone for a walk early but as soon as I got home and put some washing on a mini tornado seemed to strike. It rained most of the way up to Picton but the rest of the weekend was fine. I even got a little sunburnt on Saturday whilst sitting on the deck, playing Scrabble, drinking cocktails. Ah, that's the life. It was a very chilled out weekend. Just what I needed.

Last week at Weight Watchers I had lost another 700 grams which was good. Total loss to date 7.7kgs. Only 16.3kgs to go. Easy. I won't be able to go to my meeting tomorrow morning as I am catching the red eye to Auckland for a weekend in WW. Ooh I can't wait! Claire is coming up now too so it will be great to have a weekend of Mum hugs and Dad jokes.

I spoke to the Southern Barts on Skype (Oh how I love thee) on Sunday night and was informed that Annabelle has started to crawl. Oh happy days!! Gavin said she isn't all that fast ... yet... but has a cute little grunt. Well, you try crawling everywhere! It's hard work!!! So cute. She will be a little menace around the Christmas tree - I can't WAIT!

Speaking of the wee cherub I found a photo for the caption competition in the archives. Please feel free to leave your submissions.

And saving the BEST for last. Happy happy birthday for tomorrow Apes! I hope you have the best day ever and that you are suitably spoilt. We'll all be thinking of you. xx

People Of The Hill

Since beginning my weight loss mission I have taken to walking up the hill once a week usually on a Saturday morning. From home I walk up to the Sign Of The Takahe and back which originally took an hour and a half but I have recently got my time down to one hour and 20 minutes! During my walk I have time to brainstorm for the blog and think about my hunky boyfriend who, this week, is my hero. More about that later.

I'm not the only person crazy enough to be walking around early on a Saturday morning - there are 3 types of people out and about at that time:

The walkers

The runners

The cyclists

Us walkers are all friendly and always say good morning to each other.

The runners are in two sub groups - the mature runners who say good morning or at the very least smile on their way past, and the young runners (mostly male) who are fully focussed and have no time for niceties. They are there to run!

Then there are the cyclists. The cyclists don't talk to anyone unless they are in a group of cyclists and in that case will yell to each other. Whatever time of the morning it is. Now, I gave them the benefit of the doubt due to the fact that they are concentrating on keeping their bike upright while going forward up the hill - not an easy task I can imagine. BUT then coming down the hill they STILL are too cool to korero (that's Maori for 'talk' for those who don't speak the milk) they do however have time to blatently perve while enjoying the downhill speed. I guess I should be thankful that I am a wee bit perve-worthy. I will try and remember to thank them next time!

Getting to the top still makes me proud of myself. The inner me raises my arms and runs around on the spot whoop-whooping not unlike Rocky in the movie of the same name, while the real me staggers, ever so cooly, over to the drinking fountain trying not to collapse as my legs suddenly feel like they are made out of jelly.

It all seems to be worthwhile though as last weeks weight loss was 900 grams. Total weight loss to date is 7 kilos. Only 17 kilos to go. Easy.

Claire has been a busy little B-artlett in the garden. She has made a tyre garden. Yes, that's right, a garden out of tyres. It looks nice and Toby loves having a new warm place to sleep.

The veges are all in the main garden now too so hopefully they will start growing rapidly so we can take what we can fit in the boot to Queenstown with us for Christmas. Fingers crossed.

The potatoes are growing rapidly so that's good.

The Southern Barts came back to ours for 2 nights after Melbourne. In the week that they had been away Annabelle changed heaps again! She is really growing up fast. It was nice to see them again so quickly and it sounded like they had a fabulous week away.

I took the day off work on Monday and we walked into town for lunch and visited EVERY outdoors shop in the city. It was a fantastic day so perfect for being out and about.

My exclusive man friend Lance was down last weekend. Unfortunately he had left by the time The Southern Barts got back into NZ so they still have not met him. Catkin doesn't think he is real. He is so!

Anyway, Lance and I went out for dinner on Saturday night to Costas Taverna in Victoria Street. Very yummy it was too. We caught a taxi and on the ride there my mobile somehow got out of my zipped up bag and was left behind in the taxi. Please note: Absolutely no alcohol had been consumed at this point. I still can't work out how it happened. Anyway, when I discovered my mobile missing Lance called it and the cute little taxi driver answered it. He was out at the airport at this stage but promised to keep in touch and would drop the phone off when he was back in the area. After dinner we went to the casino to watch the rugby and then headed home. Cute little taxi man rang just as we arrived home and Lance told him there would be $20 in the mailbox if he could drop the phone off there. In the morning the phone was back!! Happy days. And THAT is how Lance got elevated to Hero status.

Last night Claire, Mark, and I went to an 18th birthday party. Ashleigh Hampton from our netball team had a bbq/party at home and we were lucky enough to get an invite. It was a really great night - lots of laughs. It wasn't a particularly late night either and I think we all woke up with clear heads.... I know I did anyway.

It seems to be the month for birthdays - we went out for a pre-birthday lunch with Lynnie today to Harrington's Brewery in Belfast. It was yummy. We hadn't seen Lynnie and Courtney for what seems like ages so it was really lovely to catch up with them.

This week is a short week due to Show Day on Friday. Yay for short weeks! It will be nice having a sleep in on Friday morning knowing that the rest of NZ have work as usual! I might even set my alarm just so I can go back to sleep again. Ha!

But wait, there's more!

I know, like me, you just didn't get enough of the cuteness that is Annabelle on the last blog so I'm adding a little more. Claire took some brilliant footage of the wee poppet and this one just makes me laugh. She's so good at just entertaining herself. And so talented!!

In this wee movie you'll see her doing the Haka, practising her words (Dadda), and cleaning the floor with a little spit and polish. Bless her.

And she always has big smiles for her adoring Aunties!

We're counting the sleeps til Christmas in Queenstown.

Bubs, Bugs, And Making Movies

We had visitors for Labour weekend - the Southern Barts came to stay for a couple of days before heading off to Melbourne for a week. Of course cameras were on charge a week in advance to allow for maximum paparazziing!


It was great to see them again as it had been 3 months since they were here last which was the last time we saw them. Annabelle was rolling around and sitting up on her own. She's a big girl now... with a great big set of lungs! It makes me laugh that Gavin (he who likes quietness) has a very vocal daughter! Ha! (Apologies for the clip - it sounds like Elmo is in the background.)





Again the cats were on high alert - the midget with tourettes was back! Annabelle clearly loves the cats and gets VERY excited upon seeing them. They are getting braver but do tend to stay out of sight when we have visitors of the tiny variety.





I dropped the Southen Barts off at the airport early, early on Sunday morning. Unfortunately Gavin had picked up a bug and wasn't very well. We had to stop en route to the airport so he could 'get some fresh air'. Two days later I caught the same bug and am currently on my second day off work. Not nice. Silver lining = I should do well at my weigh in this Friday. Fingers crossed.

Back On Track

After a week of not much exercise but a WHOLE lot of stressing out, I weighed in this morning with a terrific 1.7kg weight loss result! I have reached my 5% original body weight loss too.

I do need to work out a plan this weekend as I am finding it hard to fit in exercise now that I have a part time job. As we all know - exercise is a key factor in losing weight.

I think the secret is the hill walk - the week I didn't do it I put on weight. So look out hill, here I come!!

Total weight loss to date = 4.9 kilos. Only 19.1 kgs to go. Easy.

Today is a good day.

Bangladesh Upgrades

I've been home alone for the past week - Claire and Mark are house/cat sitting for a friend of Mark out at Burwood. Claire isn't due back home until Sunday. I did get a text from Claire yesterday saying that the cat they are looking after is naughty and she misses and appreciates the good behaviour of Min and Toby.
It's all in the parenting....

I had a visit from my friend Jo Glover from Auckland over the weekend. Jo has just returned from a 7 week tour of some parts of America and was en route to Winton to stay with her brother, his wife, and their two little kiddies.

She arrived on Saturday afternoon bringing the sunshine with her. We went to a movie on Saturday night - Couples Retreat which was quite good. Some laugh-out-loud parts. And then had a nice Chinese meal. $18 each got us about 5 different dishes to share PLUS chicken and corn soup PLUS spring rolls AND wontons! Needless to say we took a rather large doggy bag home with us! It was yummy!

On Sunday morning we conquered the hill walk - all the way up to The Sign Of The Takahe and back which is an hour and a half round trip. There was a lot of silence up the steeper parts of the hill! It was just too hard to talk.

I took Jo out to Riccarton Mall for a look around in the afternoon and then we met Mel at the Museum for a walk around Hagley Park in the evening. It was a good weekend.

Jo caught the bus to Invercargill on Monday morning so I dropped her in Worcester Street on my way to work.

Tuesday afternoon at work my exclusive man friend Lance popped in with perfume and wine that he had bought me while he was in Australia for 10 days for work. It was nice to see him but unfortunately he was on his way back home to Picton as he had an important meeting this morning at work. He plans to be back down in a few weeks so I will look forward to catching up properly then. Mmm... I smell nice today!

I have a sneaking suspicion that our horrid neighbours at number 12 have come into a bit of money recently. They have started upgrading bits around the house - starting with a new gate from the house to the garage. You'll never guess what the gate is made out of - Corrugated Iron! The very same material that she complained about us building a fence out of saying, and I quote 'It devalues the street'. Ha! Eat your words, Tinny! I hope it doesn't cause her too many migraines... much! The labourer had to replace wooden panels on the garage to attach the gate to which OBVIOUSLY means that the garage is rotten and about to fall down. Good to know.

Also it has been noted that they have new netting curtains - about time! AND she may even have slightly cleaned the windows of all the cat fur! There were no net curtains up at all for about a week which gave Claire and I maximum peeping Tom oppotunities! Not that we could see a whole lot - it's very dark in there.

I stand in the kitchen and don't even try to disguise the fact that I am staring at their hovel with a look of disgust on my face. Maybe they got the message.

We still get the constant noise from the breeding cats in cages down the back though which breaks my heart. I swear I can hear them saying 'Let me ouuuuuut!' or 'Danieeeeeeellllllleee!' Poor things. Cat breeders are NOT cat lovers, in my opinion.

Ouch!

Not such a good result at my weigh-in this morning unfortunately. Apparently I put on 500grams this week. That's half a kilo. That's a lot. After walking every day this week for at least half an hour - most days twice - it was a bit of a shock. I guess it just means I will have to try harder next week. And I was so confident that I would have lost weight too - skiting away to Averil last night on Skype. That will teach me. Today I just feel like crawling under a rock.... with a packet of toffee pops.....