Oh dear – I’m starting even later today – there’s no way I’m going to get this finished before dinner! Now that we’ve moved closer to my favourite eldest daughter, Julian doesn’t have to leave as early as he used to, to drop her home again – which means that we have time for more “Arrow” and more chatter before she leaves – which is good! 🙂 When Lee arrived this morning I was in the middle of getting Rubymoonshine, the last of my newbies on Greybriar, on her way to Meridian, but we went window shopping for bathrooms online instead. She likes black and white as a bathroom theme, but having spent some time in Adelaide with a bathroom that had black tiles (many years ago now) both Julian and I have promised eachother that we’ll never, ever, have black tiles in the bathroom – especially in the shower recess! We saw a lot of nice bathrooms online this morning, and a lot of – shall we say, “interesting”? bathrooms… some downright ugly bathrooms, and quite a few “really nice but the wrong colour” bathrooms. We also saw exactly what I want! Well, maybe not exactly – I really did want some purple/mauve/lilac/lavender shades in it, but I’m willing to compromise and have those colours as “contrasting accents” (towels, bottles, ornaments, whatever!) It’s exactly the shade of grey marble tiles that I want, and I really like the textured tiles in the back of the shower recess (and behind the bath, only we won’t be having a bath!) You have no idea how sick and tired I am of having to lie the shower head on the floor of the shower, and of having nowhere to put a tube of toothpaste, or a box of tissues! My new bathroom just can’t be completed quickly enough, so I’m extra pleased that I’ve found the tiles and the shades of grey that I want!

My favourite eldest daughter is really doing extremely well with her Optifast diet – she’s lost about 33 kilos, and will be catching up to me soon! 🙂 But oh dear – while we were having lunch today she was leafing through one of my magazines, looking at all the pictures of beautifully presented foods in it, mournfully exclaiming how she’s never going to be able to eat anything like that again, ever! This is not true, of course – one can eat anything one likes, after reaching one’s goal weight – the thing is though, not to eat too much of it, and not to have it too often. I told her that I’m really looking forward to having a piece of really good chocolate cake (home made, preferably!) – but I don’t really want to eat a whole piece of cake – a mouthful or two would be plenty for me – I just want to taste it again, and get the feel of the texture in my mouth! A small plate of fresh pasta every now and then – three or four oven cooked chips – a piece of fillet steak just smaller than the palm of my hand… and as a special treat 😉 a KFC Zinger… 🙂 Oh, there’s lots of things I’m looking forward to eating again once I reach my goal weight – but it won’t be all the time, and it’ll be in small amounts – I’m all too aware of the possibility of slipping back into my old, lazy, “I don’t care” ways – but I meant it when I said I was sick of being obese, I will get myself stabilised around 65kg, and believe me – I’ll still be weighing myself every day, doing my Treadmilling three times a day, and watching myself like a hawk! If I do start putting on too much weight, well I know what to do – back onto the Optifast diet until I stabilise again! Besides – if the food’s not there, I can’t eat it, can I? 🙂

But I really am a very lazy person – another day has gone by and I haven’t managed to find a Podiatrist, and I haven’t managed to locate the nearest Nando’s store for Sunday’s lunch with the kids (for a very belated Father’s Day get-together) Lee and I, of course, will have our favourite Optifast bars 🙂 (hmm… according to their map, it looks like the closest ones are at Forest Hill or Burwood East! Either Lee or Kate should be able to pick up the order on their way over…) Julian was contemplating buying a BBQ while he had the use of the van, but he ran out of time – and besides, I think it’s still a bit too cold to be sitting around outside having a BBQ!

Weigh-in this morning. I think my body is “making hay while the sun shines”, or something – I went down another three points, from 74.9kg to 74.6kg! I’m still waiting for the nasty big Bounce Back to pounce, though However, I have twelve days left to lose as much weight as possible before I have to go back on those awful fluid-retaining pills again… so I’m staying on two anti-fluid pills a day (and my feet still get a bit swollen, anyway!) and I’ve upped my Treadmilling speed (yet again!) to 3kmph – and you know what? It still doesn’t feel as though I’m doing any “proper” exercise! It’s just… too easy! Isn’t exercise supposed to be hard work? Aren’t you supposed to feel tired, or out of breath, or hot and sweaty, when you finish? Cos I don’t! Am I not doing it right, or something? My toes are getting a little sore, and I’ve had to stick big band-aids around the balls of my feet, when the skin tends to split if they get too dry – but other than that *shrug* I feel about the same as I do if I walk from one room to another! Perhaps I am doing it wrong…

Anyway, because I started this so late, it’s now “that” time again! 😉

+————————–+ * Dinner & Television Break * +————————–+

And finally, here I am back again! 🙂 I’m not sure what’s happening tomorrow – I suspect that some shopping for Sunday will be in order – Julian doesn’t know where the salad spinner is (probably still in a packing box labeled “Kitchen Stuff”, of which there are still several to go through) so a new one might need to be purchased – and just because Lee and I won’t be eating the chicken and chips and a dessert doesn’t mean that everyone else has to go without 🙂 Me? I still have a girl to bring through to Meridian, and I need to check out a few bits and pieces for various plans and projects, so I expect we’ll both be reasonably busy 🙂 I certainly hope that we haven’t got anything booked for this Monday – morning or otherwise (!) – because we’ll make it our traditional “Sunday Rift Ramble”, seeing as we haven’t had a proper one for what seems like months! And that’s pretty much it from me tonight – I’m sorry that this is coming to you all so late, but as they say in the classics, “better late than never!” 🙂 But do call in again tomorrow night to catch up on all the latest – whether Julian bought a new salad spinner or not, and what he purchased for everyone’s dessert on Sunday, whether my weight continues to go down, or whether the feared and expected Big Bounce Back has caught up with me, and lots of other interesting bits of trivia! 🙂 Until then. though, please try to bee good, always try to do the right thing – it will gratify some people and astonish the rest, and always remember to keep warm, to look after yourselves, and to drive carefully – but above all, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂