Another day but not another dollar !

This morning I woke up and thank goodness K is feeling much better. Dropped her at school, came home, replied to some e-mails and then went out for a mega walk. Stopped off at Coles to check if I was working tomorrow night - yes which is good and bad - good because I am desparate for the money, bad because it means K will be alone for the evening - not that she minds, but I mind !!! I also asked about getting trained up to be a check out chick - the lady who deals with that section fo the store is on leave until Monday so have to go back on Monday to see her - BUT, at least it may be some form of revenue coming in which will be great.

My eating has been good and my exercise has been excellent. I have been making a concerted effort to have at least one piece of fruit a day and it has been going well - actually sometimes I find it really refreshing and quite enjoy it !!!! Tonight we are having roast with dry roasted veggies so that will be good.

The Academy where K goes to school has teamed up with Fitness First and they are offering two free classes (6.45-7.45am) per week to students, staff and parents so K and I have signed up for those - they start next Tuesday. I have been told to wear padded pants or bike shorts so presume it is something to do with a bike for the one day - whatever it is, it will be good because it will get my heart rate up, get those calories burnt off and BEST OF ALL - it won't cost me a brass farthing !!!!

I am going to have a swim now and then try to get stuck into those books for this final assessment on NMT on Monday night - jeez it is hard to get back into the studying thing !! SO glad I didn't leave the Diploma for another year before doing it - don't think I would have been able to get back into the books after that long a break.

Will be flicking between the cricket and the tennis tonight - jeez I hope we do better in the cricket. I know it is a dead rubber and that we are in a re-builidng phase but come on guys, how easy can you make it for SA to win ??????? Am undecided about who I want to play Fedderer in the finals on Sunday - will see how the match goes tonight.

Take care everyone and have a great weekend !

Thought for the day : I have learnt that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time doing it.

Update : In reply to my e-mails sent out this morning asking what was happening with roles that I applied for last week, I received a job description and remuneration for one role and was asked if I would like an interview next week - one of 10 candidates contacted - so still a 1/10 chance of the job but hey, at least I got an interview which is more than I have had in the past 10 weeks since I first became unemployed !!!!! YAY !!!!!!

The universe works in strange ways

I know that I said I didn't know how I was going to manage when K went back to school but I didn't expect her to get sick so that she could stay at home with me either !!!! "Universe, next time I say I don't know how I will manage - please let me find out and don't make my DD sick so that she can stay with me. Thank you"

She went to school on Tuesday (first day of year 12) even though she wasn't feeling all that flash - she drove there and did a really good job of it. I picked her up when school finished but she wasn't interested in driving home - she had a dreadful temperature. We got home, I gave her some panadol and she got straight into bed and slept through until about 6pm. Woke up and ate a little bit of dinner and then went back to sleep again. She spent the night on the mattress next to my bed and we were up and down like yo-yo's the whole time - something to drink, go to the toilet, more painkillers, change the ice packs she had on her forehead and back of neck, back to the toilet to throw up (don't know where that came from) - and this is how the whole night went with not much break in between each. In the morning she was just burning up and so didn't go to school - spent the day on the couch alternating between shivering and perspiring. She had a much better night last night (and therefore so did I) and wanted to go to school this morning. She looked a little better although still not that flash so sent her off with instructions to call if she felt she couldn't manage anymore and I would go and pick her up.

Needless to say I only did just over 4500 steps for the day - if she had just been sick without the temp I probably would have left her and gone for a walk but I am always wary when kids have temps and didn't want to take the chance.

Last night we had the second to last of our catch up lectures - next Monday night is our assessment and I have a heap of studying to do before then. My Dad came and sat with K while I was at lectures after A had to leave to go to work - will see what we are going to do tonight as we are both due to work from 8-12pm. Maybe A can take some carers leave if she is still battling with a temp - can't ask my Dad to stay until midnight as he has to get up at 4.30am to go to work.

My eating has been good - I have been having at least one serve of fruit a day and most days manage to get through at least 2L of water. The one good thing about having no money is that there aren't any treats around the house although I have to say that it is just as easy to overeat on 'good' food as what it is to eat on 'bad' food. At least the scales are going in the right direction.

OK - the rain has now stopped so I am off for a walk and then I am going to come home and toss up between redoing my resume (on the advice of an HR manager whom I treated the other day) and studying the origins, insertions and actions of the muscles of the body - actually I suppose it isn't too much of a toss up because they both have to be done - just a case of which one will get done first !!!

Take care and have a great day !

Thought for the day : A pessimist is someone who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

I survived !!!

Well I survived the first day back at school. I dropped K off and then went to gym (third to last day I can use the facility before my two week free membership runs out) and then came home. I applied for a job and answered some e-mails.

In the meantime it was pouring with rain for 5 mins and then sunshine and then pouring with rain for 5 mins and then sunshine again. Eventually got tired of waiting for the weather to clear and I got a brolly and went out on an 85min walk - and never needed the brolly once !!!!

Came home and had some water (should have taken it with me) and some grapes. Just having some trail mix for lunch - too hot for anything else and then I am going to sit with the last of the Twilight books and see what Bella and Edward get up to.

Today wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be - must make sure that I have things to do over the next couple of days to make sure I don't start eating because I am bored and tired of not working !!!!!

Thought for the day : Friends are like flowers, they give pleasure just by being.

Hot, muggy day

Well that is exactly how it has been today - hot and muggy. I had forgotten what it was like living in this sort of humidity but it brought back all sorts of memories from my life in Durban where this is the norm !!!!

Needless to say it doesn't invoke a huge desire to do anything apart from lie under the fan or in the air conditioning. But, I started the day with excellent intentions - we took K's car to get cut and polished and were going to walk home from there - not sure how far but certainly quite a distance. We were going to stop at Harbourtown to have crepes for breakfast (last day of holiday treat for K) and it had started to rain on the way there - while we were eating it absolutely bucketed down. K was whingeing about having to walk all the way home in the rain even though we had a huge golfing umbrella so eventually I gave in, called my folks and got a lift home.

Then as I was getting ready to go to the gym, the phone rang and it was Target to say that the 4th book in the Twilight series had come in and they would put one aside for K. What a relief - she has been phoning all over the Gold Coast every second day trying to find this blasted book - finally the chance to get it. So, after gym we went down and picked it up and I started reading out loud as she was driving home (probably not the most responsible thing I could have done but we are both so anxious to get into the book !!!!). Went to the local centre to get some school shoes for K only to find they had sold out - how does a shoe store sell out of school shoes the week before school ??? OK maybe I should have tried to get some sooner but we have been tossing up whether these would last a whole year or not.

Then we got a call to say that the car was ready but had to wait for A to finish work so that he could take us there to collect it - it has really made a difference to how the car looks. He did a great job and even touched up little scratches and chips in the paint work.

Now it is dinner time - thank goodness it is only having to heat up left overs - I am so hot I don't think I could be bothered to cook and then it would have been take-aways and I definitely don't want those tonight - I have been doing too well to sabotage it with junk !!!!

Take care and have a fantastic long weekend !

Thought for the day : Life is a drawing board, sketch you own scenes.

A better day

Today was a better day for me - but then K was with me and that really makes all the difference. She is just so funny and comes out with the most outrageous things at times. Where she gets her imagination from I have no idea - at no time have I ever seen this trait in either myself or A so how come she has such a vivid imagination is anyone's guess. But, it is great having her around and I am savouring these last few days with her.

I didn't go to gym today - I woke up this morning and my muscles felt sooooooooo tired so I gave it a break. Went back to the acupuncturist who has changed the herbs yet again - she also needled in different places so hopefully this will be the turning point for me. My hayfever had definitely improved before I got sick but since the weekend, my itchy eyes, ears and throat and sneezing are back with avengance again.

K and I did go for a walk this afternoon although it was only for 45 mins - I had a dreadful headache but knew that if I didn't walk I was going to battle to make my 8000 steps per day and really, it wasn't too bad once we were out there although it was bloody hot. I am sure that I didn't feel any different to if I had just stayed at home reading my book - actually I probably felt better for having got out there and got the endorphins going.

Tonight I went to lectures - although would gladly have given them a miss if I could have - got home and had dinner and now I am just busy cooking the herbs before going to have a shower and get into bed with my book.

I have said no to a quite a few food items today which would not have helped me in my quest to lose weight so am really happy about that. Since joining the 12 week challenge, I am now accountable for what I put in my mouth and it has made me much more aware of just how many little things had crept into my mouth which were not conducive to weight loss. I have had only 1 softdrink in the past week which is just fantastic as I was probably drinking about 1-2L of softdrinks per day - and not diet ones either !!!!! I have to say that I am feeling a lot better for having cut out the softdrinks - my only complaint is that my skin has gone to the dogs - I don't know what it is but I have had such breakouts (I never even had anything like this when I was a teenager) over the past couple of weeks. Very strange as I am eating so much more healthily (is there such a word ??) - no chocolates (except for those 4 Lindt balls) - minimal softdrinks and yet my skin is worse than ever. Oh well - at some point it will have to improve.

Anyway, have a great day and take care !

Thought for the day : To live life to the fullest is to see the world as a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower.

Feeling like cr*p today

If today is any indication of what it is going to be like when K goes back to school next week, I am not looking forward to it one little bit. She had a maths tut to go to at school this morning and then went to the movies with some friends and the day was just awful - no-one to play the giddy goat with and nobody around to make me laugh ! I am going to really miss having her around.

I got up this morning and went to gym. Then came home and had breakfast and K drove to school (she did a really good job seeing as it was the first time she had driven in traffic in her manual car). After that I went and got some shopping and then came home and starting applying for a job that had been advertised on seek - it is with Queensland Health and, after trying to work out how to answer all their selection criteria, I have to wonder how badly I need the job (well actually I am desperate for a job so I answered all the questions) - now I am just waiting for a referee to get back to me so that I can put his details forward - if I haven't heard back from him by the morning, I am going to use another of my ex-boss'.

My walk today was done with the help of my iPod - I don't think I would have made it without the company of the music. I got home in time to go to fetch K from the movies only to find that the garage remote wouldn't open the garage door - bugger !!! Called my Dad and asked if they could come over and let me in so sat in the shade waiting for them. They came, I dashed inside, got a drink of water (had left my water and tissues at home when I went walking - not a good idea in 30+ degree weather at 2.30pm !!!!), and dashed out to get her.

Got home and got the therapy room ready for a client tonight and then got dinner cooked. Jumped in the pool before my client arrived as it was still so hot at 6pm.

Now I am sitting here trying to keep positive even though I fell cr*p - I haven't had a full time job since the middle of November, my casual hours at Coles are becoming more and more sporadic due to me going to lectures two nights a week, I have cut our expenses as much as I can without cancelling polices and such and even though I have been applying for jobs, most of the time I don't hear anything back. The worst part of it is that I know that I am totally capable of doing the jobs that I have applied for (it isn't as though I am just sending my CV off for ANY job - I only apply for ones that I know I can do) and I don't even get a thanks but no thanks letter from them. IT IS SO FRUSTRATING - today I could just feel myself wanting to crawl into a little ball and cry my eyes out and it was all I could do to stop myself. I don't want to feel sorry for myself but my self esteem is slowly being worn down to nothing. I know that the right job for me is out there and I just need to be patient - all I can do is send my CV off - the rest is up to the people who receive it.

Thank goodness for my walking - I have to say that I am really enjoying that. K mentioned yesterday how much fitter I was and I asked her why she said that - she replied "Don't you remember those first few walks we did when I first broke up from school - you battled to keep up with me and I had to keep on slowing down for you ? Now you keep up with me without any problem" - then I realised that I must have got fitter because she was right - I was able to keep up with her. At the gym this morning the lady asked me how I was going - I said that it was good although my legs and arms are still very weak and only able to cope with the weights that she had put for me - BUT the chest press (I think that is what it is called) and the lat machine (whatever that is called) I was finding reasonably easy so the second time around the circuit she upped the weights on those two and I could feel the difference which was good.

Tomorrow is a new day and I am going to take heart from the fact that the sun will come up (well most likely it will given where I live !!) , my family and I will still have our health and, at some point in the future, I will find a permanent position.

Have a great day everyone and take care !

Thought for the day : Use your past successes as a trampoline, not an easy chair

Another great day !

This morning I got up and checked mail. Then I had my chinese herb tea and went off to gym. I was really pleased because on the way to gy, I had a call from a lady who received a flyer from the mail drop I did on Saturday asking if she could make an appointment for a massage !!!! I am really enjoying Contours - I just wish that now that I have the time I had the money to continue to go once my two free weeks are finished !!!!

I got home from there and had breakfast with K before leaving at 10.30am to go on a really long walk - just under two hours actually. We did a big circuit and stopped off at Coles to get some wraps, lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes to make a salad wrap with the carrots and cheese we already had at home.

Then a quick shower and off for a driving session (now over 2/3's of her 100hrs completed - YAY !!!). Got home and made sure the therapy room was all set up and waited for the new client to arrive. She left and said she was very happy with the treatment which is always good - although the real proof will be if she makes another appointment and actually comes back again. I mentioned the hot stone massage to her and she is very keen to try that so hopefully she will be back.

Then it was time to go to lectures - have just got home and am catching up on what I have missed during the day. Am off now to finish the washing and then shower and settle down with my book until A gets home from work.

Have a great day everyone and take care !

Thought for the day : Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.

A great day !

Yesterday I had a great day - in the morning A&K were changing the radio in her car to an old one that we used to have that has a CD player and he suggested I go to gym. So, thought I would give them some father/daughter time together and off I went - I really enjoyed it.
Got home and they were still busy so went and did a mail drop - think the flyers were reproducing in my hand because when I finished nearly an hour of walking and delivering (with not that many No Junk Mail stickers) - I seemed to have almost as many as when I started !!! Not that I am moaning because there are more flyers to go into other post boxes and get clients into my business.

Got home and did a very little bit of revision work for my lectures. We got a rice cooker on our Award Points recently so made a pumpkin risotto - not that best I don't think and maybe we will just keep it cook rice in - I haven't been able to cook rice since we arrived 9 years ago - can only make the 2 min packets of rice - all I land up with is a gluggy mess when I try to cook rice in a pot. Hopefully this will help as a little rice goes a long way when you are on a tight budget !!!

Then as I wasn't rostered to work tonight A had to go off by himself - I dropped him off - came home, showered and then took K out for 1 1/2 hrs of night driving - this 10 hrs of night driving is taking a long time to get finished. We are now 2/3's of the way through her 100 hours so slowly slowly getting there.

I got home and all I wanted was a nice big bowl of ice-cream but thought long and hard about how good a day I had had and realised I didn't REALLY want to blow it with a big bowl of ice-cream so got my third bottle of water and wokred my way through that instead.

Today is a new day - I am off just now to do another mail drop - hopefully the last for this lot of flyers - and then I think that most of the day may be spent in front of the TV watching the ODI in Hobart. I can't believe that we lost the game on Friday night - at one point SA had over 10 runs an over to get to win - and they bloody well did it with 3 balls to spare - hope we can pull something out the bag today. We really need to find some decent bowlers !!!!

Thought for the day : The world can only be grasped by action, not contemplation

Where did the week go ?

I have just seen that my last post was on Sunday and today is Saturday - nearly a whole week has gone - where did it go to ????

I have had a good week food, water and exercise wise. I had one client and I had a couple of calls from employment agents re my CV which I sent to them in the hope of finding some work - no work yet but at least they called to say that they had received it and would let me know if anything came up. Not sure how long we can continue with next to no income from me.
I did quite a few mail drops during the week and probably have about 350-400 flyers left to do today - surely someone out there needs a good reflexology treatment or massage ????

We spent quite a bit of time running around getting the car registered etc - hit a snag there as the old man we bought the car from is in hospital and his daugther was handling everything under an EPOA - got the register the car and they want to see the original EPOA ! Bugger - so had to get in touch with A to get in touch with her husband to get in touch with her (she was busy trying to get her Dad into a respite centre) to eventually make an arrangement to meet her at another licencing place closer to her at 4pm - A called to say she would be there at 4pm - we were in the middle of a mail drop so had to dash back to the car, scream home, get changed and then all the way down to where she was - anyway it is all done now which is the main thing. Except we used the car to go to work on Thursday night and someone broke the mirror off that they had just replaced because it was broken and needed to be replaced for the RWC. Luckily A has managed to do a repair job on it but will have to keep an eye on it.

My walking this week has been good - mainly because of getting those flyers out plus I want to try to make over 8000 steps per day. Before Christmas a friend gave me a two week free membership to Contours gym. She called on Sunday night wanting to know if I wanted to go on Monday morning but I was still recovering from last week so said I would see later on in the week. I was in touch with her on Thursday night and went in yesterday morning - what a great little place it is. No gym bunnies in tight skimpy outfits - just real women with real weight problems trying to do what they can. I thought I would be stiff this morning but I'm fine - will definitely make the most of the these two weeks while I can. The lady went over the pricing with me - $195 to join and $60 per month for a 12 month contract BUT they have a January joining special of only $95 BUT she saw that I had ticked 'Tight budget" as a reason for not joining previously so said that they could do it for $50 !!!! Which would be fine if I had a spare $50 and $60 pm to pay for it for 12 months BUT seeing as I am battling to pay the mortgage, gym membership isn't going to be an option no matter how good it makes me feel. :( Never mind, when my business is up and running with lots of clients and I am working from home only, I will easy be able to fit in a 30min workout at the gym. I mean right now I have plenty of time but when I find full time work - between that and lectures and Coles and clients and family, I really can't see that I would have the time to go anyway.

This week I have made much better choices with my food as well as saying no to little treats which in the past I probably would have said yes to. I have probably only had one soft drink and have done really well with drinking between 1.5-2L of water each day - I think with all the walking I have been doing, it has been so easy to drink that much water.

Have a great weekend and take care !

Thought for the day : Failure is the opportunity to try again more intelligently

Feeling much better

Today I am feeling much better. I haven't done that well in the steps department but I don't want to overdo it too soon and find that I have a bit of a relapse. Tomorrow morning I am hoping to be able to start my mail drops again because I have about 1000 flyers that still need to be delivered. The good thing is that I did have a phone call for an appointment from the couple of hundred dropped on Sunday and Monday last week - unfortunately I couldn't provide any treatment because I was so sick but the good thing was the client was prepared to wait until I was better. K called her on Friday to say that I was still not better and would be in touch early this week so will give her a call tomorrow depending on how I am feeling and whether I am up to giving a treatment.

I am off to lectures in a few minutes - they postponed Wednesday lectures because I couldn't make it which was rather nice although seeing as there are only two of us it would have been a little difficult to do any practical work.

My eating today has been good. I had some low fat strawberry yoghurt for breakfast and then we each got a breadroll when we were out at the centre at lunch time. Not sure what I will do about dinner - I have a few WW frozen meals in the freezer so will maybe have one of those when I get home after lectures.

The main thing is that I am feeling so much better than I did last week although I am getting really down about not having a job especially as my hours at Coles seem to be getting fewer and fewer each week - not sure what is going on there. I went in today to speak to the grocery manager but she wasn't in so will send a letter with A tonight and see if she gets back to me.

I am off to have some water and then get ready for lectures - take care and be good !

Thought for the day :Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.

Thank goodness ...

finally I can get out of bed !!
This past week hasn't been fun at all - coughing and spluttering away AND STILL NO VOICE ! The main thing is that I managed to get up for a while yesterday and have spent a large part of today out of bed so hopefully in the next couple of days I can even get a walk happening !
Today we went and collected the car which we bought together with K - it is a 1989 Nissan Pulsar hatchback - with 45 000kms on the clock !! Yes, the old man who sold it used to go to the shops and back each week and that was all the travelling that he did in it. Tomorrow we are taking it for RWC and to get all the hoses replaced, then off to register it and then, no doubt, it will be the only car that K and I travel around in.
I am still looking for a job - I have put it out to the universe but I think that maybe the universe is just a little busy with other things at the moment because there is just nothing out there - come on universe - help me out here - please ......
OK- just wanted to let you know that I was up and about in the land of the living again - hopefully will have some good news to post re my weight this week. Despite being sick I have been eating better because I have had to eat to take my tablets - a far cry from the one or two meals which I may have been eating since I stopped working in the middle of November.

Thought for the day : Every exit is an entry to somewhere else.

Starting the year off sick - bugger !!

Well the way I am feeling at the moment certainly wasn't how I thought I would start 2009 !! On Saturday my throat started to feel scratchy and 'off' and Sunday I woke up with the worst cough ever - K says it sounds like I am trying to cough my lungs out. Little does she realise how sore my throat and ribs are and if I could stop coughing I would. I have been taking cough mixture which does help short term but as there is no infection there is no point in going to the dr despite getting nagged by the family. K didn't even want me to go walking this morning !!!! In the end she called A who basically said if I wanted to walk I could and she wasn't happy with him !

Last night at about 10.15pm I started walking circuits around the house - our bedroom to the therapy room to the garage and back again. A asked me what I was doing and I said that my steps were so p*ss poor for the day (despite a visit to Bunnings and IKEA !!) that I was trying to get them up. He said lets go for a walk so we got changed and did the first of the mail drops for this year - it was actually quite pleasant walking that late at night as it was certainly a lot cooler than during the day. The only problem was that my chest was quite sore when we finished. This morning K and I did a shorter mail drop and will try to continue with those until the 1500 flyers are all distributed. When we were finished we drove to see my folks and to get K's driving hours up (she has to do 100 hrs logged driving and has got just over 56 hrs done so all going along well - until I find some work when it will come to an abrupt halt !!!) - we got home after seeing them and I really just flopped on the beanbag. Couldn't sit there as it was too much like lying down so had to get up and sit on the couch - managed to doze on and off a little (didn't get much sleep last night) and then in the afternoon we went to the centre to the PO and to get an exercise books for my lectures which started again tonight.

There are two of us who have changed schools to do the Diploma of Remedial Massage and we are doing a catch up course on a subject which we didn't cover at our previous school - it is really cool having only two of us in the class - plus we get on really well which helps as well. The only problem is that I have no voice - lost it about 2 hrs after the coughing started yesterday so peace and quiet reigns at home again !!!

Am off to spend some time with K before she goes to bed - will wait up for A to get in from work and then will go to bed - unless I fall asleep before then !!

Take care and go safely !

Thought for the day : Climb that mountain, follow your star, achieve your dream. If you can dream it, you can be it.

A new year !

Happy New Year to anyone reading this blog !! I hope that 2009 brings you all you wish for yourself and your family and that you can look back at 2008 with fond memories of the good times and try to forget the not so good times !

How many people make New Year resolutions ? I haven't made any for quite a few years now as I found that it sort of made me almost certain to break it. I feel it is a bit like 'going on a diet' - that implies that at some point you will 'come off the diet' - I try to think that I am embarking on a healthier way of eating / living more than a diet. Sometimes it works and sometimes I still land up going back to the unhealthy lifestyle and land up where I am at the moment.

Since I haven't been working, I have tried to walk more, eat less and make better food choices. I would have thought that this would have helped budge some of the excess kilos I have been carrying but to no avail. My walking last week was rather pathetic when compared to the previous week but we really didn't do much on Christmas Day or Boxing Day that could be considered exercise in any way. The good thing was that we didn't go overboard with our eating either - we just didn't do much in the way of exercise.

Throw in a cricket test between South Africa and Australia and there are another couple of days where being a bean bag spectator seemed to be the order of the day !!! We certainly seem to be very good at throwing games away !!!!! Never mind, we always knew there was going to be a period of rebuilding after MacGrath and Warne retired and, while we are close to relinquishing our No 1 position in cricket, I am sure that we will regain it sometime in the future.

I can't believe that A's two weeks of leave is finished tomorrow - we haven't done nearly as much as we thought we were going to - but the good thing is that I think he has had a really good break which is more important. Tomorrow we are taking a couple of trips to the tip to get rid of the clutter outside that really doesn't need to be there (although there is heaps more I would like to get rid of - he is a bit of a hoarder who battles to let things go if there is the remotest possibility that he may be able to use it in the future) but at least it is a start.

I had better close off for now because I need to get supper finished otherwise we are all going to be snacking the whole night - take care and look after yourselves !

Thought for the day :
Today is absolutely today
Today is not yesterday
Today is not tomorrow