Self Control

I'm having a Laura Branigan flash back Friday! (If I was cleverer I would have inserted a utube here!)

I've been to Body Step twice this week! Yes, Twice! Our instructor Rocks. She really mixes up the music & routines, we rarely do the same routine or have the same music 2 classes running. This week she played "Self Control" Tuesday & Thursday nights as well as "Don't Leave Me This Way" last night. I can home singing it; I woke up singing it.

My lips were blue after the last Cardio track (Don't Leave me this Way). I just couldn't get enough oxygen. I was giving 150% as well as trying to sing along :0) You should have heard me puffing! As you can probably tell, I am really into Body Step at the moment. It is my favouritist class!

Why is it though, that I can do really high impact step without problems, but a Body Attack Class or a 15 minute tready run wreaks havoc my right knee??? If I do a run in the morning, I am unable to bend my right knee or navigate stairs by the end of the day, yet the following day all pain is gone. Strange.

I did notice on Tuesday night that I favour my left leg - we were jumping up onto the step with both feet & I needed to step down with my right leg or I'd stuff up the choreography (when we were doing the left side I was fine). I really had to concentrate hard. My left is the ankle I rolled a couple of months ago & it was sore again Tuesday night (I don't remember rolling it again) & I had my step on low for the whole class.

Last night I wore my ankle brace & put my step up to the higher level as Tuesday night felt a bit easy & my ankle was fine! Lots of happy endorphins ensued. Mostly the music was good. I find it really affects my mood - if I like the music & love the class; if I don't know or like the music, I'm not so into the class.

These are my (current) favourite Body Step Tunes:

1. When will I be Famous Or Funky Town
2. Cant fight the Moonlight
3. Life is a Highway Or Walk this Way Or Born to Be Alive
4. Funky Cole Medina Or It's Raining Men
5. Are You Gonna Go My Way
6. Self Control Or Born to be Wild
7. We Will Rock You Or American Woman
8. 9 to 5
9 Walking on Sunshine
10 Don't Leave me this Way
11 Jenny from the Block
12 Your Body is a Wonderland.

Am I showing my age??

pale blue sky

Is what I can see out my window this morning! Better than the grey I could see last week. The sun is shining & the parrots are tweeting away in the gum tree out the front. We've had a tribe of 50 or so hanging about for the past few weeks. I think they'll be gone soon, as the flowers (& nectar) are almost gone, but they've made me smile while they were here.

On the weekend I finally made Skinny Latte's breaky bars. They are really really good! I had one for afternoon tea/lunch yesterday arvo with a cuppa, just to sample them of course. I'd forgotten that I actually like Tahini; & combined with honey & muesli...mmmmmmmmmmm. I had one for breakfast this morning as I couldn't be bothered making proper breakfast. My plan was to eat them instead of packaged muesli bars for morning tea. Let's see how that goes.

I'm back up to 60kgs today. I think I'd better start counting points again for a bit. I'm not overly concerned, I just don't want all my hard work since Christmas to come unravelled. Being a chick I know my weight will go up & down a bit each month; but I'd decided that 60 will be my magic number. When I hit 60, I count points till I am back under. Then I can relax a little. So on & so forth. I've kinda slackened off on the whole challenge front & haven't updated the WAS challenge for weeks. I know, slack. But I'd been on a challenge of some sort since the beginning of January & was kind of over it you know???

I finished the last book in the Twilight series on Friday night. Boo Hoo. I want more!!!! I have a new Jodie Picoult to read & 3 more John Marsden books, one of which I started last night, before changing my mind & starting Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince. I've already read it a couple of times, but with the movie being released in 2 weeks I thought I'd refresh my memory.

There has been "hens night" talk already - we were out for dinner on Saturday night with Jax (bridesmaid) & one of my unofficial BM's who wanted to know what I wanted to do!!! At one point we were going to Hong Kong for a week, but I think that had a bit to do with the G&T's.

My other unofficial BM lives in Honkers & is having a big birthday bash this year (40th) & is hoping to get us all over for it. However it is the week before Christmas & the worse possible time for us business wise. While it would be awesome to surprise her & come over for a long weekend/week as she won't make it back for the hens night as well as the wedding................. Plumbing Boy said I could go if I want, but he did remind me that there are other things that we are saving for that are probably of higher priority. Don't you just love those double edged swords!!!!

I've only been to two Hens nights. The first one I was asked to organise by the bride as her BM's were a bit useless: she wanted to go on a pub crawl, her BM's weren't really the pubbing type. All I really remember was a bunch of annoying drunken chicks who I had to get from one venue to the next & I didn't really know any of them & it all ended up being a bit too hard!

The second one I met up with a bus load of girls who came from the opposite side of town at a Ladies venue in the city, where they had 2 hens parties & half a dozen strippers. The first one was funny, but the rest just became tedious - same routine, different costume. Maybe I just wasn't drunk enough? Male strippers I must admit don't really do much for me. Seen one, seen em all. When the bus left (they had a few girls driving the porcelain bus), I went to the pub across the road & watched a band for an hour or so before going home!

Actually, I've been to three. The third was my sisters! I'd forgotten out about it. It was just me, her & her best friend & we went out dancing in Warrnambool & got smashed. Can't really remember much more that that!

So. As you can see, I've not really had a lot of experience at such gatherings. I am thinking a weekend away to maybe Daylesford, or somewhere along the great ocean road might be in order. Tell me about the Hen's nights you've been to & what you liked & didn't like PLEASE! Any clues on etiquette? There's bucket loads of conflicting info - only invite those who are invited to the wedding as it's rude to do otherwise V inviting people who you wont invite to the wedding due to numbers & cost. And do you have to invite all the "eligible" chicks you are inviting to the wedding? And cousin's you only see once a year??? Bah. It all gets so complicated!

Confirmation

Well, Almost.

Simon, the new proprietor of our wedding venue called me Tuesday night. He said that I can hire the room, no problem. He will get back to me with a price in due course. I am hoping it won't be too much more than what I was quoted by the previous proprietor.

I don't know what the new name of the venue will be, but they are planning on opening a wine bar/cafe & are completely refurbishing it!!!!! The first thing they will do is rip up the carpet :0) They anticipate opening around the 1st week in October. Our date is November 14 so that only gives them 5 - 6 weeks leeway. Whatdayareckon?

I'm thinking it will be fine. Although I may make enquiries about marquee, table & chair hire anyway, just in case we need to have it in my sisters front paddock. Speaking of my sisters front paddock, her partner trains racehorses - here is a little story she emailed me last week....

Saturday morning – Trainer Boy said I didn’t have to come to the track & could have a sleep in, but I probably should’ve! On the way home Racehorse snapped his lead turned around in the float & was trying to jump out the back! Trainer Boy stopped cos he could feel the float thrashing around & got out in time to see Racehorse scramble out the back, commando role onto the road & go galloping off down the highway. Trainer Boy was in front of "well known" garden – he flagged down a car & they caught up with him in front of the old (insert fast food chain)! Some other blokes helped & went back & drove the float up & they loaded him on the highway. (It makes a funny story but Trainer Boy's still not seeing the humour!) He might feel better if Racehorse wasn’t injured. He’s got scrapes all over his legs & his knee is the size of a football. (names & locations have been changed to protect the identity of the involved parties yada yada yada)

Anyhoo. Back to the wedding. Simon will be using local caterers (whom I believe are quite good) & will put them in touch with me in the next week or so; but if they are already booked for that date or I prefer to use someone else, he doesn't mind. We will be the first wedding they will host at the venue. This could work to our advantage, RE pricing etc, although could be a bit of a disaster. I'm going to take the optimistic view. It will all be good!!!!! Plus he will want purty pictures to show potential clients so it will all have to be smick!

I did ask if the refurb will limit the number of covers they can do, as it previously did 100 + band but will be about the same when they have finished. Excellent. The band will fit. So will our guests.

I guess I can think about invitations now. I am tossing up with the idea of an "e"invite for the young uns, & paper invites for ye oldes. What do reckon? I'm not really a computer whizz, but I reckon I could manage a bit of a PowerPoint presentation. It's not really the cost I am thinking about so much as the amount of paper etc involve. IF i do them on paper, I'll want to go the whole hog & post people shoe boxes full of things to do around Warrnambool, the great ocean road etc. I'll probably want to include some sand a few shells to Bahahaha. Kidding. Or. Maybe. Not.

Fess Up

When was the last time you had your Mummy call in sick for you?

Give me some perspective people. Please.

As an employer, you can guess that I think it pretty inappropriate for you to have your Mum call in sick for you. - unless of course you are in hospital.

My point of view is if you are capable to ask another person, be it your house mate, your partner or your Mum to call in sick for you, you are most likely capable to do it yourself. There are always exceptions & I am OK with that.

I am also OK with people taking sick leave. I encourage it. Sick leave is there to be taken when you are genuinely ill or injured. I do not want your germs & prefer you to confine them to your own home, not my workplace. Plus you recouperate faster if you have a day or 2 off & can come back to work & actually work at 80 - 100% rather than staying at work & only performing 50%.

I had one guy off sick for 4 days last week. One of the days he talked about coming in. I asked him to stay home. He sounded awful. I also sent him home last week because he was obviously sick & getting worse as the day progressed.

As you can tell I've had a staff members Mum call in sick for him this morning. She called 15 minutes AFTER his official start time; 30 minutes AFTER I'd already called & left a message on his mobile as he is usually here 15 minutes before start time, sometimes 30 minutes.

This staff member is not an apprentice. This staff member is 30 years old. I wont go into details of reason he is sick, but he injured himself on the weekend. His hands, arms, fingers, head etc are all fine - I know this because he called in sick himself, right on start time yesterday.

Do you ask your partner, Mum/Dad or housemate to call in sick for you? If your partner, Mum/Dad or housemate asked you to call in sick for them, would you?

Do I have the right to be pissed?

Green Food

In an effort to reduce our food packaging waste, I've been cooking a bit more from scratch lately.

I made more muffins on the weekend for Plumbing Boy - they are the right size now for me too. My original muffin pan was for jumbo muffins making them 10WW points per muffin! Yikes!!!

Today I baked a loaf of soy & linseed bread in our bread machine. We've just had salad sandwiches for lunch & they were yummo! I stopped baking bread ages ago, mainly because we'd eat too much of it!!! Asides tasting great it was too hard to cut into skinny slices! I was able to slice the soy & linseed one today very thinly & as the loaf wasn't massive, I reckon the slices were the same size if not thinner than your store bought loaf slices. Yippee. I will be making more....

I've purchased the ingredients for Skinny Latte's breaky bars too & will have a go at making those to eat instead of my store bought muesli bars. Just as well I like to cook hey!!!

What do you all cook from scratch???

Simon & Garfunkel did indeed rock the house. They played for 2 hours straight, delivered 3 encore's & my hands were read & sore from applauding. It took 1 hour for them to play a song I did not know! Arty did some of his own stuff while Paul took a break, then they swapped & Paul Simon played some stuff off his Graceland's album (love it love it love it)!

They had 10 other musicians on stage who they introduced to us at the end of all the encores - 3 of them were from South Africa. They were all amazing! The lead guitarist played sax, Cello & recorder amongst other instruments (there were also keyboards, trumpet, drums, percussion, rhythm guitar, base guitar, piano). The music was intricate, melodic & harmonious. Paul & Arty's voices just blended so perfectly together. I didn't need my tissues after all, although it was touch & go for a while. Dad said to me when they left yesterday - "thanks for the encouragement to go & see them - it was certainly a worthwhile experience".

Sunday we took Mum & Dad out for breakfast in Williamstown - it was lovely sitting out in the sunshine, breathing in the sea air. We tried a new place this time, not as good as the place we went to last time, but was OK. We went for a walk on the pier afterwards & wished we lived in walking distance!!!

OK. I'd better get back to work, considering it is the end of the financial year & all, however I seem to have my side of things in order & am not in the least bit stressed out (this would be the first time in 10 years!!!!!). Plumbing Boy has not done his invoicing yet, so we will see how things are later in the week!

Bridge over Troubled Water

I'm off to see Simon & Garfunkel tomorrow night with my folks. My sis & I shouted them 1 ticket for their wedding anniversary - made them pay for the other ticket as they were VERY expensive & my sis couldn't afford such luxury.

I bought my own ticket. That's neither here nor there, we just place importance on different things (she'd rather a spray tan & a new dress).

I grew up listening to Simon & Garfunkel. Love them. Dad plays guitar, 12 string, banjo, banjo mandolin - if it's got strings he can probably punch out a tune. I used to sing their tunes with him when I was a kid (as well as other folky type stuff) & while I still love a good sing-a-long (yes, I'm the folky chick sitting around the camp fire singing her heart out) I've not sung in public for a long time.

Since retiring off the farm (to a full time job a the local vet clinic) Dad's joined a men's choir & a Celtic weekly jam, as well as continuing to be involved with music at his church. When I first mentioned the possibility of going to tomorrow nights gig, his eyes lit up & said he'd much rather go to that than any other show/musical/play or any other event (the tennis) that Mum might have in mind for the rest of the year.

I knew then that we were going. Despite Mum's protest that it was too expensive. Sometimes you've just gotta do it. As plumbing boy says, "you're a long time dead". That said, the tix were insanely expensive (almost 3 times more than Neil Young who we saw earlier this year). Anyhoo. I'm going. I'm excited. I will be taking tissues. I will probably cry when they play Bridge over Troubled Water. I don't care. They. Will. Rock. Um, in a different way to the Chili Peppers, but nonetheless, they will Rock.

PS been pretty slack in the challenge dept. Lost another .5kgs in the past week or so. Sitting on 58.5kgs. Haven't really been tracking, nor setting weekly goals, but have been subconsciously making sure I don't go overboard. The red wine has featured more than it should, but I will wait until after the end of financial year rush, to worry about it.

Take 2

So. The memory stick still hasn't arrived. But, Jax came over Friday night. While Plumbing Boy was in the land of nod & snoring rather loudly, I snuck in & grabbed my frock from the back of my wardrobe. Jax had a practice at lacing me in, then she got to work with the camera!!! Please excuse the manky hair.



Obviously this is the front. I need the halter neck strap tightened & possibly the shoulder straps, although maybe we laced me in to high. Will check that with the dress maker when I see her to have the front hem taken up.


The brooch is on crooked & there is a minor repair to be made with the fabric on the right hand side, the "gather" kind of came unstitched & is being held together by the brooch only.

You can see here the straps are a little loose. According to the sales person where I bought the gown, the bust is also adjusted by how I am laced in. Will check that out with the dress maker too.

I love the lace up back. The girls decided last time an up do was in order. What do you reckon?

And I like my back too. I do not like my floppy triceps/chicken wings (or fadooberda's (SP?) as my sister calls them). Need to do a bit of work on them. I have lost the roll of back fat (or as another friend of mine calls it - "baby's got back") that spilled out & over above my shoulder blades when I first tried it on.

I am thinking of silver shoes to match in with the brooch & possibly a silver stole?? I want to use old brooches on our flowers too. Was thinking about trying a tiara or one of those circlet things that go across your forehead (sorry for the crappy description!) but probably not really me. I think an up messy do with a flower. I want pink/scarlet oriental lillies with gum for my flowers. Tess & Jax will choose their own. Tess wants a bun with curled tendrils at the front. Jax is still undecided.

I wont need a necklace at all. I was thinking of dangly earings, Jax is voting for classic diamond studs. I would like a silver/diamante chunky bracelet or cuff. Feedback please!!


Ok, back to the household chores. I'm already up to my 4th load of washing for the day, with 3 to go. I've made a big pan of napoli sauce with chili & bacon which is ready to come off the stove. I'll go out & do the grocery's shortly, then make a Pork Vindaloo & a Chicken Tikka Masala when I get back. Am still pondering some sort of casserole, but I suspect I will run out of time. Oh, And I will bake another batch of Muffins. Looks like Plumbing Boy will be on the road for the next couple of weeks working rather than being in the office, so need to stock up on lunch box treats! And I need to watch the footy, take a bath, read my book................best I get too it!!!