LIVE! On location at Roxy Inn

I am currently house/cat sitting at Roxy Inn while Claire and Scott are on their belated honeymoon to Port Douglas, Australia. I am hoping it is slightly warmer for them there than it has been here. I'm enjoying spending quality time with the cats and having them share the bed with me. They are such good company.

Mum was down in Christchurch for a week at the beginning of the month during school holidays, before jetting off to Queenstown for a few days so see her grandies. It was so nice having her here. We had turns at having dinner at each of our houses so it was a bit like 'Come Dine With Me' but without the scoring at the end. Averil, of course, was on school holidays as well so was able to keep Mum entertained during the days which was nice.
On the Saturday we went out to the Raspberry Cafe in Tai Tapu with Scott's Mum, Dad, and Nana for lunch. It was great. Good company, good food, good setting.
As usual it was over all too quickly. But it sounds like Mum had a great time in Queenstown.





I've had quite a few cancellations this month with Intimo parties which has been a shame. There is a nasty flu going around down here and apparently 60% of Christchurch had it a few weeks ago. The hospitals are over flowing and having to send people to other medical institutions to be looked after. I guess it's to be expected around this time of year but the bugs seem to get stronger each year.
I have been asked to partake in a fundraiser tomorrow evening for Springfield School (not the same one as Bart & Lisa go to) so hopefully that might make up for the lost parties. Fingers crossed we get lots of bookings for August and maybe even some sales too.

Saturday is Averil and Eru's moving day. How very exciting!! They are hiring a truck this time to hopefully move all the big stuff in one trip. It should be all done in a few hours. Apologies for getting the suburb wrong in the last update. They are moving to Wainoni. Translation from Maori is 'wet bum'. Ha ha. Best original joke wins a year's free subscription to The Roxy Review!

Cousin Alex has been a bit of a super star of late. He left NZ last Sunday to go and try his luck at trialing for soccer in Poland. Just from his status updates on Facebook it sounds like it has been hard work and, I imagine, a LOT of sign language. Going over to warmer weather would have been a nice break though I am sure. He has travelled with his friend, Jesse, and they had to move from the first place they were assigned due to drug dealers. Sounds like they have a much nicer place now.

I had a little op done on my leg on Wednesday. I had been burnt by a hot water bottle when I was living in Edinburgh and the scar had healed into a wart-like bump on the front middle of my ankle. I HATED it and it would turn purple when the weather was cold. So I had it removed. Now I have a big long scar to replace it! It's early days so I am hoping it will heal nicely. A bit sore though. Luckily I had the cats to look after me post surgery.
The doctor who did the procedure is a plastic surgeon and specialises in breast augmentation. Renee, being a super nurse, had said that he was a real perfectionist and is VERY particular with his work. So that made me feel better - as long as I didn't end up with a breast on my leg!

So, you may or may not remember 2 years ago I was doing Weight Watchers and did ok losing 12 kilos. Then I went for a jaunt overseas and discovered gelato in Italy (Mmmmmm), then I came home and there were earthquakes. My way of dealing with said earthquakes was to sit in bed and eat chocolate for 8 months. SO, understandably the Weight Watchers went out the window and the WEIGHT piled on. Booooo!
It's time to start again and do something about it. Getting up off the couch was the hardest thing but I did it and have been on Optifast for 2 weeks with a total weight loss of 6kilos. Happy dance. Optifast is monitored through my doctors surgery and I go in once a week for weighing, ketone testing (to see how well my fat is burning up), and a blood pressure check. I have two Optifast shakes a day - one for breakfast and one for lunch, and two cups of non-starchy veges for dinner with 1T of olive oil. AND at least two litres of water. It is hard going but I am motivated by the results on the scales.
I have two dresses to choose from for Kathryn's wedding of which neither fits just now. The wedding is in November so gives me plenty of time. I WILL wear one of them!

The great thing about blogspot is that you can see what countries your audience is from. Yesterday I had 17 views from Latvia. Where? I had to look it up. This is what I found:
Latvia i/ˈlætviə/ (Latvian: Latvija), officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Republika), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia (border length 343 km), to the south by Lithuania (588 km), to the east by the Russian Federation (276 km), to the southeast by Belarus (141 km),[8] and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden. With 2,070,371 inhabitants[5] and a territory of 64,589 km2 (24,938 sq mi)[9] it is one of the least populous and least densely populated countries of the European Union. The capital of Latvia is Riga. The official language is Latvian and the currency is called Lats (Ls).
So there you go - The Roxy Review goes to Latvia!