So Much Changes

So since June I have gone through a lot of changes. Including I am now engaged and moving to Michigan.

The job in Dubai fell through on contract negotiations. I'm not sure why they were surprised I wouldn't worked for peanuts.

Becoming a mud engineer seems to be an unlikely dream now. So instead I am to be a farmers wife. Completely different

A month too long

So my semi-regular blog went for a hiatus. The last month has been packed with work.

And an obsession with a site called SparkPeople http://www.sparkpeople.com All part of the improving my health and well being.

My obsession could be likened to some others (who will remain nameless') obsession with SIMS.

I have been weighing food and tracking calories and walking daily. It suits my legalistic OCD nature.

The life of lifestyle change

It seems to me the moment I manage to get one part of my life under control the minute something else falls apart.

Going good and bad.

The last two days I have been REALLY hungry at dinner time. Last night I had crackers and mayonaise, the really bad kind. And thought I had planned cauliflower soup for dinner I also had 1 and a half rissoles. And the fat that came off them!!

Still each day is a new day today has been porridge (1/4 cup of oats, 1 cup of h2o and a pinch of salt) 1/2 tbsp of sugar and 1/2 cup of rev milk. cup of coffee with skinny milk and 1/2 a tsp of sugar. Morning tea a banana and a pear. Another cup of coffee. And lunch 420 g stir fry, 105g chicken, ginger, beans, capsicum, slivered almonds, garlic, mushrooms, carrot, chicken stock cube, h2o.

Am considering a snack oh obsession thou art foul.

A new beginning like a new year's resolution

Ok, so I went to the doctor's on Friday, needed a refill for my perscriptions and wanted to ask about weight related options including Duromine and other drugs others have been telling me they take.

She brought up the idea of lap band surgery. Its sad but for my height and weight my BMI makes me obese, but as it turns out no where near meeting the criteria for the surgery. The only thing which was a little reassuring is my doctor is in her own words 20kg overweight. This actually made it sound less like being told off.

She has referred me to a dietition and thinks I should consider a 1200 calorie a day diet.

So today I am up to 853.5 calories and it is 3.40pm. 3 corn pancakes and 1.5 slices of bacon, 1 tbs mayonaise, coffee with .5 tsp sugar skim milk, 1 med appl, 1 medium banana, cauliflower soup, 1 tbs bread crumbs, 2 x coffee with .5 sugar and skim milk.

Leaves me 346.5 calories for dinner, haveing ginger chicken with vegies, and almonds. May actually have 1250 today. But a start is a start. Will it be able to last till tomorrow?

Slack Slack Slack

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions and I often think that is the case.

I mean to blog regularly but then I get into a funk and forget. But the good news is I have been achieving some successes lately. Going to bed between 10:30 - 11pm each night, all housework done before bed, clothes and lunch prepared everyday and breakfast eaten before I leave the house. And my exercise regime is now 4 out of 7. Menu preparation a week at a time, and budgeting improvements. The bad news is the food I have been consuming. And my propensity to throw it up.

It is not full blown bingeing but there has been some guilt ridden bulimic tendencies reoccurring which is not good news. Always in the evening and despite my intake of water. A trip to the doctor might be in order.

So today I had porridge for breakfast and a banana. 3 light Salada's (all four squares) for break, risotto for lunch, 4 sweet biscuits and an apple in the afternoon, my plan is lasagna for dinner. And 3 cups of coffee and 3 glasses of water.

Bridget is now signing off.

Going Bridget Jones

So I have decided to turn this blog into more of a diary to 'keep the bastards honest' to quote a politician.

Enjoying my time at Plum, but as with everything I do I get invested. I find a problem and then try to fix it. I'm not much of a look the other way type person.

So to be boring here are the basics

Breakfast: I wholemeal muffin toasted, topped with 220g baked beans, 1 tbs LSA and 30 grams grated vintage cheese., 175ml fresh oj, 1 glass of water, I cup of coffee, 1level tsp sugar and skim milk (REV).

Break: 1 banana, I mug of water, I cup of coffee, 1/2 tsp sugar and skim milk.

Lunch: Medium salad, avocado, carrot, lettuce, spring onion, cheese, lime springwater tuna 95g, tomato, mushrooms, capsicum and cucumber.

Afternoon: 1 apple, mug of water.

Dinner: Small serve of risotto with parmesan cheese, Mug of water, small bowl of skim milk custard with nutmeg.

Up at 6.20 am in bed well I tell you tomorrow.

Sushi

I love sushi. The real kind raw fish and all. I also love the rolls, pickled ginger, wasabi and the inari, in fact my favourite meal is a bento box. Now why am I writing this well it is because all over Melbourne there are sushi shops and I think about 90% of them buy their product from the supplier. But one of my favourites is at the top of Bourke street and they make it on site.

I mention this place because like "Seinfeld's Soup Nazi" there is a way to get take away. You walk in the door and stand on the step next to the fridge display and wait for someone to come to you. You DO NOT go to the counter or they bark at you.

But it is really good and worth knowing the rules.

Once Again Matthew

Ok so I haven't blogged in two weeks. I have no excuse. I got hit by easter and the library closed. I got a job so I didn't need to run around like a banshee trying to get web access to search for jobs.

And in the mean time Matthew has come back to Melbourne. He is a great guy but I wish he would check his flights. Once again there was drama. He was 100% sure (AGAIN!!) this time on the time of his flight. But he was a an hour out. So we had to organise another flight and in the tens minutes from when we booked the flight on the drive to the airport to him going paying for the flight it went up $30!!! How I have no idea. So we decided instead to put him on a flight this morning. 6.30 am we had to leave home by 5am to get to the airport an hour early. And as I am starting a new contract today I had to get up at 4am so I had time to dry my hair.

It is not all vanity ok well maybe it is. But if I had to have a security photo taken I didn't want to look like the wicked witch of the west.

The good news is Matt made the flight. I got to work on time and alls well that ends well.

To Avalon and back

My South African via Adelaide house guest left today. Matt has been a welcome distraction to the shoe box. But this morning was a little tougher than sharing the flat for 8 days. A trip to the airport sounds simple doesn't it.

Matt and I watched "The Island" last night and it finished around 11pm. You would think that this is not a late night but as Matt and I found we were want to do we stayed up talking till 1am at which point we were actually going to bed to get up round 5ish so we could be at what I thought was Tullamarine (will need to check spelling) by 6.10am.

When Matt said not Tulla we have to go to Avalon, I suggested he call and check but he said he was 100% sure. And due to the late hour and not thinking straight I didn't even question what airline which as it was Qantas I should automatically have been able to say only Jetstar leave from Avalon.

But I didn't, I did however go to the car (Thank you Hayley) grab the Melway and figure out we would need to leave earlier. By the time we were finished discussing this it was closer to 2am. I was up at 4.45am and we were on the road by 5.10ish getting to Avalon exactly by 6.10am only to have Matt say when he saw the sign for the Jetstar Terminal we needed to go to the Qantas!!! terminal.

Long story short after travelling as fast as legal we made it to tulla around 6.55am and as Matts plane was to leave at 7.10 he had missed it. The good news was Qantas were very helpful and got him on the 9.10am.

So in the end all is well that ends well.

28 March 2007

Unoriginal Title. Unoriginal Day. Spent 40 mins on the phone to Centre link. Have an interview this afternoon have an interview with an employment agency in the morning.

I think I left my purse on the tram yesterday with $36 in it. SO very exciting as I now have exactly $4 and 5 cents to my name in cash and $14 in the bank!!!

Thank goodness for good friends. Who are lending me enough to make rent, phone and electricity bills. I need to temp in the next two weeks or I am going to be desperate. Hopefully that won't happen. I am holding my breathe in anticipation.

Tuesday

So there has been a lot going on lately. First off let me say. STOP emailing me comments. Please make your comments on the page :( Makes me sad. I look like a lonely Scott Neville Howard!!

First Off when I came home from Cape Town I walked into my flat and it felt very small and I renamed it "the shoebox". Now I have a guest and it feels tiny. Matthew is the son of a friend of my step-mother who is on a GAP year in Adelaide. He is Melbourne for the FINA World Championships to watch the water-polo. He is very passionate. And over 6 foot so it feels like the space is much smaller when he is in it. Not in a bad way, just in a spce way. He is also very smart. He makes me feel like I need remedial classes. There is no way I was as put together at 19.

OK on to my social life. So wedding number 1 passed and now wedding 2. The hens night was a quiet one, champagne and cupcakes and then out to the Marque Hotel. There was a fluffy tiara and fluffy handcuffs involved so she wasn't disappointed. Ironically for the second hens in a row I won a prize. A set of red, plastic handcuffs with "take me I'm yours on them". Maybe I will win a hat trick and get a prize at this weeks lunch?

The hiccups of the day included a hair stylist who wanted to do the brides hair her way and not the way the bride wanted. And the groom turning up to the rooms where the bride was preparing and just walking in????? And then realising his error walked out and sent a mate (Ben) back in!!! Frazzled the bride a bit but gave her a reason to relieve some of the tension she was feeling. The wedding was beautiful with Dee being traditionally a little late and Todd freaking out she had changed her mind. And because my friend is so good I had an awesome black cocktail dress as a bridesmaid dress. Not a single pastel, puffed sleeve or giant bow in sight. Just a simple taupe bow that matched the brides. And because Dee is blond and in white and I am brunette in black we balanced really well. OK we looked AWESOME. No ego involved.

Will update with photo's shortly.

SO the job hunt continues and I have a lead about a temp job that pays well so am interviewing tomorrow. Hopefully for an immediate start. Will update all soon.

It is 28 degrees outside and I have a 2 hour break in between Internet bookings" so I am off to enjoy the sun.

I hate writing cover letters.

It is so hard trying to re-write cover letters. After 20 or so times you can no longer read.

I feel at this point in time completely illiterate. So much so I can't spell anymore. I am applying for jobs with people I have never met and hoping what I write will hit a note with them.

I'm much better in person. I am considered personable and always make a great impression.

But I am left to write these instead!

(The above post was stuck in draft???) I am publishing anyway.

Still hacking like a lumberjack

So Apart from the obvious as listed above....I am doing well. The weather is still summer like despite it now being Autumn. Yesterday was a balmy 28 and today is suppose to be 33. But the wind makes it more comfortable.

There is part of me loving not having employment on days like these. But to be truthful I am not enjoying it much as I would like. I need to travel to use the internet to get a job.

Today is 2 hours at Flemington, 2 hours at Moonee Ponds and then 2 hours in Niddrie. So by the time you include travel I will be working an 8 hour day and not getting to spend the time outside I would like.

So I have been hunting down jobs all over the place and have found some intersting websites. Then there are always interesting people blogging about them. Negative and positive. So far I don't have a job through any of them and I would say based on the comments around take all information with a grain of salt. I am checking with the companies listed at all times.

Remember buyer beware

www.Naukrigulf.com
www.jobsindubai.com
www.iqpc.com
http://sbsjobs.com/
www.scotcareers.co.uk
www.careerone.com.au
www.seek.com.au

WHY WON'T THE GERMS GO???

So I am eating at least 6 vegetables and 3 fruits a day. I have maintained a minimum of 1.8 litres of water a day and have been going to be arount 10:30pm each night and rising between 5am and 7 am each day. Along with that I have walked no less than 10,000 steps according to my pedometre. And yet I have a cough more akin to the hack of a 2 pack a day smoker.

Along with the continual light / dizzy feeling in my head and the constant urge to nap (which I am not doing) so I can sleep at night.

Any way back to the other realities of work. I went to a UK job "trade fair" on Saturday and have now submitted my resume to 5 more companies. Along with that I have been applying for jobs in Aberdeen all with the idea of getting into the Oil Industry.

If I was physically sending my CV out I would have been the reason several trees would have been cut down by now. So not for the first time thank goodness for the electronic age.

Alright back to the search.

St Patrick's Day & MaryAnne & Geoff's Wedding.

So St pat's day was a lot of fun. You can't even tell from the photo how sick I felt.

I think I have Issy's cough. I had the runny snotty nose for the last week and a half. And now have a dry hack cough. Yay!!

So at left you can see Carmelle and I at our finest. Carig is in the back ground. The reason I mention Craig is because of Carmelle's husband Tariq.

When Craig walked in I was glad to see him. We have always got along well"and it had been some months since I last saw him. And for those of the readers out there who are not in the know I used to work with Craig at Aviva before he went on to bigger and better things as a financial planner.

But I digress, my first thought was I must introduce him to Tariq. The two of them would hit it off. Low and behold Carmelle and Tariq arrive and Tariq and Craig immediately gravitate to eachother. Turns out they had met at the buck's night and had hit it off!!

And at least 60% of the ensuing time mocked me mercilessly.

The wedding was lovely and we all got a bit teary when Geoff got choked uo talking about his wife.

Making the most of it.

I am trying to find a job both here and in the UK. This entails me travelling from library to library to get computer and internet access. So today was a start a Airport West / Niddrie, then to Sam Merrifield (Moonee Ponds) and now back to Flemington.

At least you would have to call me diligent. Now all I need is my recruiter to get back to work. She has the flu!!!! Which whilst I speak about germs I have decided that I have caught every single germ I missed whilst I was away. See my friend germie above. He is from the

huhs.harvard.edu/NewsFlash/HandWashingAdvice.htm website. Always important to reference the work you use.

Alright enough lolly gagging bag to job hunting.

Back in Melbourne

I love my town, the smells the people, the ability to go for a walk without the security fears drilled into me by Dad and Dani.

I went to the Queen Vic on Saturday and walked with wonder through the aisles. Seeing everything and nothing. Knowing that I knew which stall to go to to get the best banana's who has the best price on furry koalas and the smell of rancid rotting fruit and vegetables that is the in between.

All familiar and it was if I had been sensorialy deprived. And I know I am at home. So ridiculously soppy I know. But it is amazing.

Days are filled with job hunts at the moment. Temp roles and roles in the UK. I am persusing the finance sector at the moment, but the thoughts of being a mud engineer are still there. So much so I am enrolling in VCE Math & Chemistry, that is along with CERT IV in training and assessment, a beginners project management course and pursuing the idea of completing and MBA.

So despite my I love home speech above I will be doing my best to leave again.

Catch Up

Ok so sad have just checked and I have 15 draft posts. Don't know why I didn't finish them. Today will be fun trying to remember what I intended to write. So I'll start with now and work back. Wont that be confusing.

So I had a great day yesterday hanging with Niki Botha who is to those in the know the Queen of the Universe. She took me to hang out in Long Street which is and I quote "an institution" in Cape Town. A funky eclectic street which if you've been to Melbourne is a lot like Smith Street and Brunswick Street. People were much more casual and relaxed than those around Constantia Village. But at the same time the casualness seemed to be a little contrived by some. Designer grunge if you will.

But I had a great time picked up a first addition book as a gift for my dad as a thank you, some cool beads that look like African masks / shields and a CD on how to speak Xhosa.

The host kids are also in town Cecil and Kaylene such great kids. We had much fun in the pool yesterday. And today promises to be a cracker as well. Alright posting now and starting on the others.

And it kept coming.

So I was sick and it continued for two more days. I felt 3000% better than the first day but the aches and pains were still there, the bathroom was re listed as my place of residence and a bio-hazard unit had come to take away the alien material all calmed back down.

But it is very hard being sick in someone else's house.

So very sick.

Today has been awful. And before you read further despite the euphemisms it will be graphic.

I was awake all night with a combination of vomiting and #2's which smelt like death. So bad the dog growled & yelped when he came in after the flush!!!

Combine that with the night sweating and the fact I was sleeping on the bathroom floor as it was the only place I felt comfortable and you know I was not feeling tops. When I looked in the Mirror this morning I saw a creature from the black lagoon. So to try and feel normal I had a shower only to find being vertical for too long took a toll.

So I have spent the day rising and trying to be human and returning to bed after about 20mins for 2 & 3 hour stretches.

This afternoon has been a little better but I have found lifting Issa or trying to the hokey pokey has left me weak.

So much so I am signing off now to return to my place in the water closet.

The month so far.

Well it has been hot ever since I arrived. But it looks like it will be wet for the next week. And yet that will still be fun. Have been taking a lot of opportunity to swim in the pool. Even if you push off and reach the other end or two strokes to the end.

I have managed to hook up a contraption that ties to the filter port and then around my waist so I can pretend to swim laps. Sounds arduous but it works. You can kind of see the pool in the attached pic. Will add a better one once I figure how to upload from my dads camera.

Received the first piece of ID required to get my UK ancestory VISA and am now waiting on mum to send hers.

Issy loves the pool so we have been practicing. She is amazing for 21 months!!! Can duck dive, climb in and out and her kicking is great, I plan on getting her a kick board.

Have also been searching for jobs internationally and it all sounds very promising. Looking at HSBC, Darnell International and some other finance postings. But as I have been online for almost 6 hours. My eyes are about to go square. Signing off.

Wednesday

At right is a picture of Issy with Brendoline the emergency foster child who has now gone on awaiting a chance to go back to her parents.

I will be sad to see her go on Friday.

Its odd but despite the fact my life is not a social whirlwind or an ongoing sightseeing tour I am enjoying myself.

It is nice to spend time with my family. I appreciate having someone to "really" talk to in Dani.

Today I was up at 6am. Did Yoga a 7 - 7:30am. then some crunches and a bit of running. Read bit of running as 10 times up and back the drive probably 50 metres one way. But for those of you who know me you would also realise his is quite impressive as I HATE running. I don't know why I make myself but in the words of Ned Kelly "such is life"

And as I haven't done yoga in about 3 months that too was a struggle. I know it sounds a bit Bridget Jones but I am maintaining an intake of at least 6 x 300ml water with some days as high as 9. Not sure my weight is any better but I am feeling fitter. Trying not to eat to many carbs at exercise every day.

Isabella is a hoot. Now that dad is home I am no longer the favourite. I am not even allowed to read her a bed time story :(. But dad is away on another trip next week so hopefully I will be allowed to put her to bed again.

More steps in the right direction.

So now I have been inspired to start tracking the ways in which I am progressing to who I want to be and have joined "traineo" check the link to my progress down the bottom.

Out of the ashes

So it is 8.50pm in Cape Town, South Africa on the 28th of January. I am still a little tired from yesterdays Australia Day party and have finally got baby Brendoline and my sister Issa (Isabella) to sleep. (Will update with pics at a later stage.)

Have sent my Father (Peter) and my step-mother (Dani) off for a romantic dinner while I babysit. Since I arrived on the 18th ? or 19th I hadn't seen dad till Friday night so I have no idea how long it is since Dani saw him.

I guess it was a while as Issy and Baba (the dog) wouldn't let him out of their sights.

I have decided this is the year of new starts hence my allegiance to the Phoenix. It will be my axiom. Now all I need is a battle cry or a dictum. Ok this year is meant to be simpler and I am going "way" to deep.

So for all of you I am sending the posting out too. Australia Day was celebrated with some very nice bubbles and some white wine. On that note I like my white wine chilled but I obviously didn't know how cool it could be. Every person who accepted a glass of white put ice in it!!! To me very odd but apparently the norm here. Watered down white ??? It takes all kinds.

We served our guests shrimp from the braai (BBQ) and springbok sausages to even the playing field. Lots of salads and for those who know me you would know I can't resist the opportunity to bake. So Pavlova and Lemon Meringue Pie were my contributions to the meal.

We also had Dad & Dani's host children (Cecil 14 and Kaylene 13 - brother & sister) here for the weekend. Such sweet kids. They were teaching me rap and how to dance. Michael Jackson eat your heart out. I felt I needed to show them I memorised rap when I was younger (what a geek I am) and I repeated verbatim Morris Minor & the Majors - Stutter Rap. Who knew that in the recesses of my brain that had lurked for 2 decades!!!

So I downloaded the words and they are determined to memorise them by the time they come back.

So I will write more. I am here for 6 more weeks. And then unless I get a job offer I am back to Aus. We will see.

goodnight