New Hair

As requested by Chris H, here is a photo of my new hair. You can't really tell in the photo that the colour is a lot warmer and redder than it has been for many years. For the last five years or so, I have had my hair coloured to be the colour that I think it was before I started going grey. I said to my hairdresser that maybe I could just leave it and let it go grey, because maybe I'd like it, but she wouldn't hear of it. She is a pretty bossy hairdresser actually, in a good way, because I don't have a clue about my hair and probably would just have it the same all the time if it were up to me. Now it's very short at the back, with lots of curls around my face and sort of a fringey thing. My son took a number of photos and this is the one my daughter liked best--saying that my fake smile in the other shots looked "scary" . . . Pity that my glasses are falling down my nose in this snap! Hmmm maybe the real problem is the subject matter!


Just for comparison, here's me dressed up in July 2008 for my mother's 70th . . .



NB My hair looks lighter in this pic because it was faded and wayyyyy over due for a touch-up! I'm pretty sure that my natural hair colour was nothing like this!

Anyway . . . stay tuned for the new glasses . . . can't wait! Since I became a truly old woman and had to wear multifocals which cost a fortune I have only had one pair of glasses and I'm truly sick to death of them. I had my eyes tested last week and although the perscription hadn't changed much, I ordered another pair anyway, so finally I'll be able to have two pairs to choose from. And the arms of them are really, really green (my favourite colour) so I got brave and chose a fashion pair instead of the" go with anything pair". They should me ready in 8-9 more working days!

While I'm uploading photos, I thought I'd put in some of my family, here I am with my two eldest children and a family friend, Clare, at Clare's twenty-first. I've known Clare since she was 3 . . . gees, makes me feel old for sure!

And another nice photo of Josie and Jacob taken that night . . .
And just so Fergus doesn't feel left out in case he ever reads this blog, here he is on his 11th birthday 30 June at the Star Wars exhibition at Scienceworks

And my husband Mark being accosted by a Storm Trooper

Ahh well, must try to get a current picture of us all together!!

Catch you later, L x

Feeling Happy

Well I have to say, I feel terrific today!! Firstly, although I weigh everyday I don't get particularly hung up on the weight I see and look on it as a "rough" guide to what's going on, rather than the gospel truth (no blasphemy intended). Because I weigh everyday I know for a fact that my weight can vary from day to day by a whole kilo for no apparent reason. Sometimes I expect to see a good number because I've been doing everything right and for no apparent reason I'm a whole kg heavier than the day before!! Other times, I see a number which I truly don't deserve because I've been doing the wrong thing and it hasn't caught up with me yet. It's funny that we tend to think if the number is disappointing it must be because of fluid or salt or too much diet coke or feminine issues, but when we see a good number, we think it must be true, and get disappointed if it disappears the next day! Well after a year of daily weighing, I've come to not believe a good number until I've seen it for a few days. What tends to happen after a while of seeing 84. something I'll get a glimpse of 83.9 and then the next day it will disappear . . . so it's only when I've seen a number a few times that I think it's really happened. Well, I've been seeing 83 something for four days now and this morning I say 83.4 so I've decided it's really true. I'm only .9 away from having lost a nice round 30kg--and it is still 3 weeks from my 1 year Weight Watcher anniversary. Yes, I could have done it faster, probably. Yes I have only lost 1.5kg this month. But this time, I really think I "get" the bit about permanent weight loss and I think my persistence is paying off. Slow and steady does win the race in the end! Very happy.

Another good thing that happened today is that I went to my Professional Learning Literacy group and feel very motivated about getting things happening in my literacy block at school. Our group has been meeting for two and half years and we really have bonded as a community of learners. It really is very stimulating. My grade this year is the most challenging I have had so far, so I need these little boosts to keep my enthusiasm going.

Then I went to my hairdresser's and had a new hairdo. Got very adventurous and had a different colour for the first time in about 5 years!! Not a huge change, but more red and "warm" than before. I let her get a bit carried away with the cut and I really like it. When I walked in, two of the ladies and one of the customers told me how nice I looked, at different times. I was only wearing jeans (but my nice new ones that actually fit and that are 4 sizes smaller than I used to wear) and a jumper--but it is quite fashionable one with an asymmetrical hem. And I had some jewellery on other than my wedding ring which is unusual for me. Mark bought me a bottle of perfume when he was in Singapore recently and I've been spraying it about, lately too. Yesterday a fashion-concious friend of mine helped me choose new glasses frames. Hmmmm, new hair, jewellery, perfume?? I used to just choose my clothes by what fitted and was clean! Can it be that I'm feeling better about myself so I'm taking a bt more effort?? I think that's what's been happening and I didn't even realise it!! It's a nice process, really.

Exercise has been good this week. No dog walking, though, but not through fears of finding body parts! We have had some really wild weather here on Phillip Island and in the Melboure region generally and as enthusiastic about walking as I am, I'm not willing to battle 100km hour plus winds. So instead it's been the gym on Monday and Wednesday and the treadmill on Tuesday and Thursday. STill find the treadmill mindnumbingly boring, though. Looking forward to investing in an ipod and checking out some talking books.

Reading back, I don't know if that bit about the good numbers and bad numbers will make any sense to anyone but me, but never mind. It's just a bit of a mind game I play with myself.

Good night all . . . happy, happy happy!

The hazards of dog walking

Well I'm quite proud of myself, I walked every day last week, although I only made it to the gym once. I am looking after my parents' dog, Sophie, so that is really extra incentive to walk as Sophie is cooped up in their yard all day. We can't keep her here with Charlie as she is an escape artist par excellence and our fences don't contain her. Another blogger, Alison, put me on to mapmyrun.com and I love it! I figured out I walked 5.6km tonight!

There have been a few disincentives to walking as well however. The biggest one being that last week, someone walking their dog found a human leg washed up on the beach--can you believe it! It's kind of like living in a Patricia Cornwell novel as the foot had a tattoo on it and they have published it in all the papers in the hopes that someone can identify it and help with figuring out who the owner of the leg was! I bound declared that I wouldn't walk on the beach again until the rest of the bits popped up, but being the beach lover I am, haven't been able to stick to it. I'm just not investigating any large mounds of seaweed too closely. I can't help but think about that poor person and wonder what happened to her (it is a female leg apparently).

Even though it has been blowing a gale, you can tell spring is in the air. The wind carries the scent of tea tree blossom which has a honeyed smell to it. And the plovers chicks are hatching. Plovers are properly called masked lapwings and they nest on the ground, sometimes in the most bizarre places. The parent's agressively guard their nests and their young--who can blame them--by dive bombing anyone who walks past. Do they like it when one walks by with two dogs, no they do not!! I am usually very sympathetic to the plight of plovers, thinking they have as much right to be here as anyone else, but they do choose some very public places to rear their babies, so somehow I think they are asking for trouble. The chicks are very cute, though, and I love to see them about the place.

Well, I wonder what excitement next weeks dog walking will bring?!

Weight wise I have been maintaining rather than losing over the last month. I have had a few busy social weekends and have over indulged, so on one level, I'm pleased that I've maintained rather than gained, but on the other hand I need to refocus, or I won't reach the goals I've set for myself. I tell myself that I'm taking the slow and steady approach to weight loss, and I'm not fussed as long as the weight goes down however slowly. Over the past 7 or 8 months, I've been losing 400 or 500 grams a week on average. I regularly go a few points over my "weight watcher points". And this is okay as long as I'm exercising. I still lose. However, over the past six weeks my exercise hasn't been too flash. I've only lost 2.1 kg in 7 weeks. I've been sick and have had family commitments which I've let get in the way. I find that when I go to the gym 3 or 4 times a week, I get really upset if I miss a session. If I go to the gym one or two times, it's easy not to go. So this next week, I really will aim for at least 3 times. My parents are away, and I am entrusted with the care of their dog as well as our little Charlie, so I've walked them for an hour the last 3 nights. If I can keep this up it will really help. I can do better than this. I really want to be 82.5 by 21 September--my 1 year weight watcher anniversary. This will mean 30 kg's gone in 12 months. I really, really want to be under 80 by Christmas. And I really, really, really want to be 75 kg or less when we go to Bali to celebrate Josie's birthday at the end of March, 2010. I can do this! I will do this!

Sometimes, for someone as messy and disorganised as I am, I surprise myself, by having a touch of the obsessive compulsive about me . . . counting while I walk is one of the manifestations of this! I am thinking of investing in an ipod, to see if that will stop me from obsessively counting my steps. Today I realised that instead of counting, I was actually repeating 79.5, 79.5, 79.5. How good is that? That's got to help, I reckon. I WILL be 79.5 at Christmas time, or sooner.

I have got my week off to a good start. Ihave cooked up some curried lentils and quinoa. Obstensively for my newly vegetarian son, but healthy, low point and filling work lunches for me, as well.

Cheers, all. 79.5, 79.5, 79.5 ........