Still hanging around

Well I haven't blogged for a while because there really isn't much to blog about. I have been sending off resumes left, right and centre and hearing nothing back - nada, zilch, zero, absolutely bugger all from either the companies I applied to or the bloody employment agents which I think just stinks - they least they could do is mail you saying that they have received it and will get back to you in due course or you are over qualified / under qualified / something / anything, but no, they don't say a damn thing.

I have been doing lots of walking which has been good - mixing up shorter walk days with longer walk days. This had meant that the twinge that I get in my right thigh doesn't get strained by having two days of long walks one after the other.

Lectures started again on Tuesday night so need to do some work this afternoon for lectures tonight plus I think I will need a little nap as I had a Coles shift at 4.30am so was up just before 4am - lectures finish at 9pm so it is going to be long day if I don't manage a nap !!!

My weight is moving in the right direction which is great - it is coming off slowly but that is OK - at least I can see it moving on the scales and on clothes that I have been wearing (not that I wear much - pair of denim shorts and a couple of shirts) - I am too light for the last lot of denims I bought when I put on so much weight over Christmas but not light enough for what used to be my normal jeans - need to lose a few more kilos before they will fit !!!

OK - I am off for my walk for today - it will be a longer one provided it doesn't get too hot and I have to cut it short because I have run out of cordial and can't carry on !!!!

Have a great day and take care.

Thought for the day : By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

Another day looking for a job !

Week 13 of my forced holiday has begun and I seem to be no closer to finding a job now than I was 13 weeks ago !! I know that something will come up and I know that I have to stay positive but it is getting harder and harder each day.

Today was good - I had a phone call on the weekend from a local day spa asking if I would like to do 2 massages today and of course I said yes thank you !!! I got there and was really nervous which is a little silly I guess given how many massages I have given to people I have never met before. Anyway, I figure that neither of my clients went to the owners to say that I had done a dreadful job because they have asked me if I could work on Thursday and Saturday - YAY some income to help pay the mortgage ! It seems to me as if my life now revolves around what I can do in order to get some money to pay the mortgage - how sad is that ????

Anyway, I got in a great walk before I had to be at the spa which was good. Tomorrow I have spin class at 6.45am and then will be dropping K at school and coming home for another walk before having to go and meet someone about an hours drive away.

Tomorrow night I have my reciprocal treatment for the lady who gave me a really high recommendation at the spa. This is the last week of loafing around before my lectures start again - part of me wants to get started so that I can get finished and part of me doesn't want to have to go back to slogging away on the books. I think I am really going to miss my Sunday's the most - lectures from 9.30-4.30 doesn't sound like a fun way to spend Sunday BUT the payoff is that I finish my Diploma in 5 months rather than 11 months so I am looking at the short term inconvenience compared to the long term benefits ! Please remind me of this if I start to complain about lectures on Sundays !!!!!

I have started knitting a blanket for the bushfire victims - hopefully it won't take me too long to finish as I would hate for winter to have come and gone and me still be busy knitting !!! I started it last night - luckily last night and tonight the weather has been a little cooler otherwise not sure I would have managed to get too much knitting done.

OK - am off to make lunches for tomorrow as we have spin class first up and definitely no time in the morning to worry about lunches !!!

Take care and have a great day everyone !

Thought for the day :Kindness is more important than wisdom and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom

Second post today - Do you want a laugh ??

Well this may not appeal to everyone’s sense of humour but it appealed to mine because if I didn’t laugh I don’t know what I would have done !

I never thought I would get to the point where exercise became such an important part of my day – whether it will be the same when I am working I don’t know. But, I got home from doing my big shop at Coles and it had stopped raining so got changed and set out with my water bottle and brolly. I was probably about 500m from home when it started to pitter patter – not much but enough to put the brolly up so my glasses didn’t get wet,

Within about 400m my arms had had the biggest workout trying to hold the brolly in front of me – picture a 5’7”, 25kgs over weight woman, walking down a main road trying to hold a brolly in front of her against (what felt like) gale force winds. At this point I probably should have turned around and gone home but I didn’t ! Said wind doing it’s level best to blow up my loose fitting singlet to expose my white blubbery belly to all and sundry driving past. On the other hand, I am doing my best to keep the brolly right side up, hanging onto my water bottle and pulling my singlet down each time it blew up. I also have to keep lifting the brolly to make sure I am not going to walk into any poles or people (thinking about it now, why I thought anyone else would be daft enough to walk in this weather I’m not sure !!)

Turn the corner out of the wind tunnel, only to be caught in a tunnel slightly less windy – the challenge on this road was that the wind was blowing in more than one direction !!! And, of course, blowing harder and harder. I managed to negotiate this road and turn into one slightly more protected EXCEPT the golf umbrella I am using is really only designed for pitter patter rain – not the heavy downpour I find myself in. Thus, the very item I took to stop me getting anything on my glasses has turned into the very thing dripping water onto them !!!!

The trick now becomes negotiating driveways which are painted – damn, do people not consider walkers in the rain when they paint their driveways ????? Once I was sure it wasn’t a painted driveway that was going to make me see my a** when I slipped, I had to negotiate my way through the streams of water running down each driveway because my little stumpies are no long enough to make the jump across the driveway.

This is when it starts to get really funny because the rain has cooled things down very nicely, I on the other hand, have started to get really hot – so, what happens when heat meets cold – steam occurs – on my glasses !!!!!! By now I am just about p**ing my pants I am laughing so much. I have since turned into another relatively protected road and decide that I should skull my water as it is getting too hard to hold onto the water bottle and the brolly – so I do this and, as fate would have it, there are no rubbish bins on hand !!!! But, at least it is lighter to hold now that it is empty.

Up comes to final turn to take me home – BUT, that is back into the wind tunnel !!! So after turning the corner and nearly walking into another poor soul out in this awful weather, I take the brolly down and just walk in the rain !! The next challenge is seeing out of eyes getting stung with the rain falling behind my glasses and having to look through lenses which are just a mass of rain drops. So I get to a road and a car is turning – I gesture for him to go, he obviously sees me without a brolly and, I think, is gesturing for me to go but I am not sure because I can’t see that well, so I gesture back, and then both he and his passenger gesture for me to go so across I run (well as fast as I can run) to the other side of the pavement. By now not only am I soaking wet but my hair has been blown out of the clips holding it back so on top of everything else I have my hair hanging in my face and adding to the drips on my glasses !!!

I got home, took my shoes and socks off and gingerly walk across all the tiles to the laundry where everything went into the machine before I went and had a shower. But, now I know I can curl up on the couch and either watch some TV or read my book and not feel guilty because I haven’t been for a walk today. And now my glasses are all clean and I see again – this makes me really happy !!!

A veg out day

That was yesterday and it wasn't supposed to be like that today but if this weather continues it may land up being another veg out day ALTHOUGH I have a plan if I can't go walking. I am going to do some Swiss ball work and a Pilates video (well that is the plan but of course, as we all know, the best laid plans of mice and men .....)

I did absolutely nothing yesterday except take K to school, come home, do some washing and then spend the rest of the day on the couch watching shows I had taped that I haven't had a chance to see. Then it was time to get K from school, came home and read for a while until it was time for a client and I had to get the therapy room ready.

Thank goodness there was enough left over paella from the previous night otherwise not sure what we would have landed up having for dinner. After dinner it was time for a quick shower and then off to Coles for another 4 hrs - sometimes that 4 hrs seems to take about 8hrs and other times it feels like I have only just got there and it is time to leave. The pay cheque from them this week will be good because I will have had 4 shifts by the end of the week - YAY - the mortgage can get paid !!!!!

Well I have decided on Diet Coke chicken for dinner tonight with some roasted veggies so am off to do as much of a big shop as I can afford at Coles and help the Victorian Bushfire victims.

Of course there is the deciding ODI tonight but unless the weather improves dramatically, there is going to be no cricket - unless of course the weather in Brisbane is fantastically wonderful and it is only on the Gold Coast that we have this cr*ppy rain which is really not needed here as much as it is needed in Victoria - damn you, move south and do some good !!!!

On that note I am off to make up my shoppping list and then hit the shops and hope that everyone else hasn't got the same idea as me !!! Given how much stock came in last night I think they are expecting a real run on the stores today - I hope that the rain isn't keeping people away - I would much rather the profits go to the fire victims rather than the Coles shareholders !!!!

Have a great day everyone and a fantastic weekend !

Thought for the day : One of the greatest lessons in life is to learn not to do what you like, but to like what you do.

Not successful - bugger !!!

I e-mailed re the job interview yesterday and got a reply last night saying that they had appointed someone yesterday - bugger !!!! Not so much because that was the job I wanted - just because it was a chance for me to get a job in order to be able to earn some money and I didn't get the job. At the end of the day, it isn't as though it was my dream job or anything so am patiently waiting for something else to come up.

There were no accounting jobs on seek this morning but I am off just now to get the paper, generally there are more jobs advertised on Wednesday and Saturday in the Bulletin, to see if there is anything in there that I can apply for.

I am off to skip for a while as I want to wait for the washing to finish before I go for my walk this morning - not sure that it is going to be a long walk today, my legs are feeling a little tight and my lower back is aching a little. Think it may be as a result of the spin class but don't want to over-do it any day so that I can't walk the next day. My blister is just about gone and I am sure that a few more days of walking with a plaster on my toe will see it fine again.

I finally got around to popping to the dr's rooms to make an appoinment for tomorrow for my 2 yearly pap smear - I hate having it done with an absolute passion and generally reward myself once I have had it done - not sure what my reward will be this year as it is normally some form of food source (and not a good food source like fruit !!!)

After showing a dreadful gain on Monday morning, the scales arenow showing that I have lost all of that plus a smidgen more by this morning - go figure !!! I can see why they say you shouldn't weigh yourself every day because it can do your head in but I just can't get out of the habit especially when I am trying so hard. I think if I hadn't of got on this morning and seen that I was below my weight from last weeks weigh-in, the left over tin of caramel topping from Christmas, which I managed to resist yesterday, may not have been so lucky today and there is a good chance it would have been devoured - probably not in one sitting, but certainly over the course of the day and the tin hidden in the bottom of the bin so nobody would know what I had done !!!! Because, as we all know, what we eat in secret doesn't actually show up anywhere, does it ?????? LOL

Well this isn't getting my skipping done so I will be off to do that before hanging the washing out and getting out to pound the pavements. Thank goodness K showed me how to change the songs on my iPod as I was getting really tired of listening to the same songs each time I went out (well I don't hear the same ones each time I go out but they do seem to come around rather regularly when you are out there listening every day !!!)

Take care and have a great day everyone !

Thought for the day : No state of mind is permanent unless we choose to make it so.

Time ???

Where has the time gone to - it's nearly a week since I posted but it feels like it was only a couple of days ago !!!

Thursday I did a massive walk having eating a kid's size gelato and two sticks of chocolate liquorice the day before. This left me with a massive blister on my little toe - almost the same size as my toe so Friday was my take it easy day. I still managed to get over 8000 steps for the day without actually going on a walk so that was good.

Saturday saw A and I head off to Brisbane for our 'night on the town' (courtesy of his boss' who gave us all of this for Christmas) - we went and saw the show Candy Man on Saturday afternoon, then a stroll along South Bank before hitting Ahmets Turkish restaurant for dinner - what a lovely evening it was - we had never had Turkish food before and thoroughly enjoyed what we had. Another walk along South Bank and a trip on the City Cat up to UQ and back saw his head to our hotel for the night. A sumptuous hotel buffet breakfast was on the cards in the morning and then we left and took in some markets on the way home. We got home at about lunch time, spent a couple of hours putting a new aerial in K's car and then the rest of the afternoon in the pool before watching the cricket - thank goodness we managed to pull a win out of that game !!! Mind you we didn't see the end as we decided to go for a walk - it was so cool - it was just lovely.

Needless to say the Turkish meal and the hotel breakfast did nothing to help my weight loss endeavours but I have been walking again this week and went to my second spin class this morning - definitely fared better today than I did last week when I nearly managed to fall off a stationary bike !!!!

I have just been for a walk and am about to jump into the pool for a swim. Then it was be a minute or two ('cos that is all I can manage) of skipping before hitting the showers and then the blood bank (wonder if I will see Edward Cullen there ?????)

On the work front it is still really quiet - I did have an interview last week but haven't heard anything back from them as yet. All I can do is try to stay as positive as possible as A always says "Good things come to those who wait" - I do think he is just trying to make me feel better and don't think he actually believes that !!!!!

Have a great day and take care !

Thought for the day : Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.

Ramblings

Well where to start - the last two days I have not walked as long as I would have liked as I had to get home and do other things - it wasn't too bad yesterday as I had the spin class but today I really wanted to go on a long walk but couldn't because I had a job interview. Definitely not complaining about having an interview given the number of CV's I have sent out. It went fine - seemed like a nice man - basically he is interviewing 12 over qualified people for the job out of over 100 applicants - and all he is looking for is the person who will best fit into the group of people who already work there - totally understand where he is coming from with that as it is a small group of people and you don't want to stuff the dynamics up.

(Margaret - yes it was a spinning class. K goes to school where the IB programme is taught and their philosphy is a very well rounded one - they encourage academic achievement, community service and sporting activities. So, Fitness First in Southport have 'adopted' the academy and are offering these free classes for students, staff and parents so figured that seeing as I am currently unemployed, able to go and getting onto such an exercise kick, I would make the most of the opportunity. They originally offered classes twice per week but after the turnout on Tuesday - 7 or 8 students and 5 parents- they have canned the second class until they get the numbers on the Tuesday class up a little)

Today was not a good day foodwise - took too long walking so didn't have time to make and eat lunch before I left for the interview. Bought a $2 sushi on my way there (and could have had lunch at home as I was too early but lots of road works on the way always makes me nervous about being late). After the interview I had a gelato and then went into Coles to get some groceries to cover my free parking and bought chocolate covered liquiorice. Scoffed that down before I even got to the shady park when I sat and read until it was time to get K from school !!!! Nothing like not even enjoying the wrong food !!! And then the guilt and regret set in - why did I do that ? I don't know. Did I need to eat it ? No. Did I savour and enjoy each mouthful ? Definitely not - so I ask again, why did I do it ? And the worst part is, I still don't know !!!! So I am going to have a peach for dinner tonight even though I made the best curry in the slow cooker - A&K had bunny chows and enjoyed every mouthful from what I can make out !!

After getting K from school, I came home and hit the books - did I need to ? No actually I didn't because they didn't ask one bloody origin or insertion point !!!!! A got home and we chatted a while before I had to leave - now I am on my way to have my peach and then have a nice soak in the bath with my book.

Tomorrow will be a better day - I will finish the housework for this week and I will go on a nice long walk. Who would have thought that I would turn into a walking junky ????? I just LOVE getting out there and clocking up the steps on my pedometer - while it was rather expensive, it is certainly very motivating to have on each day.

Thought for the day : Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help to create the fact.

Another day at home

This morning we got up, went to school and when I got home it started to rain - again. So I got stuck into my books and then when the rain let up I got changed and went out for 85 mins of walking - at a really good pace. I got home and I was really happy with what I had done.

Then it was time to hit the books again before going to get K from school. She is doing really well with her driving and managed there and back without any trouble today. Got home and she quizzed me on what I had been studying and found a few things I didn't know. Then the phone call came telling me that the other lady doing the bridging course was sick and couldn't make the final assessment tonight - CR*P !!! I REALLY wanted to get it over and done with tonight !! Oh well, a couple of extra days to do some more studying AFTER I finish cleaning the house tomorrow. I did most of it last night but left the dusting and vacuming until tomorrow after my exam - can't leave it any longer the blinds and shutters really need a good dust.

This evening I caught the last of the TV programme Choir of Hard Knocks - it really made me appreciate what I do have. It made me realise that while I am feeling so down in the dumps, I have so much to be grateful for and so much to appreciate. I think that they are amazing people who have done amazing things.

I'm off to make school / work lunches for A & K as tomorrow K and I start our fitness training with Fitness First who have adopted their academy and offer two free classes per week for students, staff and their families. It is from 6.45-7.45am so it will be up and moving with no fluffing around in the morning - I think it must be a spinning class (or some such thing) as we were told to wear padded pants or bring a padded bike seat so that our 'bottoms' didn't get too sore !!!! Wonder if I will need to have a walk tomorrow as well as an hour fitness class ????

Today I did realise that while my goal is to complete at least 8000 steps per day - sometimes it is good to have a rest day - my legs really appreciated the rest they got on Saturday and I felt soooooo much better on my walk today than I did last week. The fact that I am getting so much fitter might also account for that !!!

Thought for the day : There is no failure except in no longer trying