Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Checking in from the Stone Age


Forgive this interruption in blog posting!   It seems I am now living in the Stone Age in my part of Victoria.   The telephone exchange burnt down last Thursday and it seems that Telstra do not have a back up plan for us! 

So from Thursday onwards we have had no phone, no internet connection, no ATMS or eftpos (it's cash everything, too bad if you haven't got cash, no credit cards being used).  It's apparently affected 60,000 homes. 

We have mobile phone coverage, possibly due to the good luck we have a repeater tower on the mount just out of town.  From all accounts the landlines will be back up and running this Friday and they’ve said the internet will be a lot later.  Eeeek! 

Mike bought the last wireless dongle in town and we’re using it sparingly for his business purposes.  The connection seems to be sketchy at best, it hooks up and then drops out.  Ahhh the joys of living in a little country town!

Be back as soon as I am able.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Hi honeys I'm home!

Actually came back Monday night, but it's taken me this long to get back to rights again.  I have had the most BRILLIANT time away in Sydney.  Absolutely mind-blowingly memorable in every which way.  I'm back and I'm pumped to continue on my 12wbt journey as another Round started this week.

This past weekend I cried so many times (I wonder if tear loss counts in the weight loss game?!?!!).  Saturday morning saw Lynn (my roomie) and I head out to Randwick to Queens Park for the big workout session.  I became a blubbering mess at the start of the workout.  Oh Lordy Lord.  I was moving along with everyone else and it hit me, seeing a wave of people all exercising with Michelle Bridges leading us.  It was just too much and I dissolved into tears.  A number of times.

We had a small Warrnambool contingent in Sydney and it was great to be able to spend some time with them, exercising, partying and sight seeing.  We don't usually see each other all glammed up, it's usually exercise gear at 10 paces!  So that was a fabulous treat.

Here are some pics from the morning exercise session.   Arriving and we thought we were going to be in for a cold session, it was a wee bit chilly.



The gorgeous Mish, who inspires us to achieve more than we could ever think was possible, and then some.



The Warrnambool contingent, a bit red faced after the workout, we were pumped!



Team VIC in our group photo with Mish there in the centre.  You can see me in the centre in the top row.   Dare I admit that when I had last week showed my mum my Team VIC exercise shirt, she thought I had been specially picked to be in a Victorian team.  I didn't have the heart to tell her I was just part of the Victorian contingent up in Sydney doing 12wbt !!  Let's just let her live in ignorance shall we.  





After Lynn and I enjoyed a wonderful Japanese lunch, very healthy, we decided to go walking.   Now there was a time I wouldn't be seen dead in the supermarket in my tracky dacks, and yet here we were walking through a major capital city in our exercise gear.  Go figure.   This is what health and fitness will do to you!  



Pretty soon the evening was upon us and it was time to glam up.   Here I am with my Warrni friends - Debbie and Casey (my Otway Rainfall conspirators from a month or so ago) and Lynn (my roomie).  isn't it nice how we even colour co-ordinated!!??   I absolutely loved my dress, but it's already getting a bit big on me, ha!  Nice situation to be in but not for the $'s I spent on it.  I shall be looking for a dressmaker to take it in very soon.



Feeling quite the glam girls here, me and Lynn, my partner in fun over the weekend.   There were about 1000 people working out in the morning and about the same amount at the party, the biggest party I've ever been to.



It was thrilling that my two Warrni friends Debbie and Casey made the top 20, and not only that, but Casey took out the title.   The top transformation out of 27,000 people.  That blows my mind.  And we all just went nuts when both the girls walked down the stage.





Oh and whilst Mish worked the room there were some minders around too, so what's a girl to do but photobomb her!  Not the most flattering one of Mish (sorry about that) but in my mind the conversation went like this:

Mish:  "Well good thing Carol we didn't wear red tonight because quite frankly Lynn is looking stunning as the lady in red.  And you my dear look simply divine as well, and your boobs are spectacular!!"



Quite frankly the memories of the weekend I think will be with me forever, my first Finale with good friends, it can't get any better than that.  It has spurred me on though, I met another one of our Warrni group, the very inspiring Tania at the gym yesterday and I went hard.  I did a PB (don't you love the athlete talk) on the treadmill, finally running 2km without stopping.  Now for a lot of peeps that may not be a lot, but for these 48 year old bones who has never run before 12wbt, it is EPIC proportions. 

Oh and before I go, we did a lot of sightseeing in Sydney over the weekend too.  We had fun at the Village Bizarre at the Rocks on Friday night, danced in the street, took in the side shows, decided our White Rabbit Bar bunny mask was the perfect accessory to walking around the Village.  12wbt'ers incognito!!



We sailed around the Harbour to glorious views such as this.  Sensational weather.





We had crazy good fun at Madam Tussaud's Wax Works at Darling Harbour.  Lynn and I totally reverted to kids getting our photos taken in all the settings.  We won't even talk about Johnny Depp's bottom, will we Lynn? tee hee.




~~sigh~~ who knew Eric Bana was so tall.  Mike has said that is my "come hither" look!  Goodness, I didn't know I had it in me  ;-)



Loads of hijinks over the weekend with Sunday night culminating in the Bridge Climb.  Lynn and I had coincidentally both done it before on our respective honeymoons.  So we were eager to try it at a different time of day so chose Late Twilight.  Oh how perfect.   Going up before the sun sets, and coming down in the dark.  SENSATIONAL.



Thank you Sydney, you sure did put on a show for us.  

Friday, November 16, 2012

And away I go ...

I no sooner get back from my mum's who is recuperating nicely after her operation, and I'm off again.  This time to Sydney!  Yip yip yahoooooo.

I cannot tell you how excited I am.  I'm jumping out of my skin.  I have finished another round of Michelle Bridges 12wbt and I'm now sitting at a loss of 22.9 kg (that's a smidge over 50 pounds).  I'm feeling absolutely amazing and my energy levels are through the roof.  I'm off today to spend a wonderful weekend with friends, some new, some old, back on Monday.

During that time I think that sleep will be highly overrated.  We have fun things planned, like the Village Bizarre tonight at the Rocks, the huge 12wbt work out on Saturday morning with the wonderful Michelle, the ritzy chi chi pooh pooh cocktail party on Saturday night celebrating the end of Round 3 where I'm going to be so excited to be wearing my beautiful new dress, and there's a late twilight Bridge Climb on Sunday coming down off the bridge when Sydney will be laid out all twinkly before us in the night sky.  What better way to end the most perfect weekend.  

And then on Monday we start the next round in ernest, roll on Round 4, I aim to smash it!  (thems fighting words over Christmas huh?)

Before I go I want to share a page I did for my wonderful husband, who has been in my corner right throughout this whole 12wbt journey.  Just quietly I think he has put himself side-by-side with Michelle Bridges as my trainer, but we won't go there!  :-)


Credits Designer Digitals.

Thank you honey.

And with that I best go zip up this case before I keep putting things into it, it's going to be heavy enough as it is!  My ride will be here soon.   Back Monday with stories galore I'm sure.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Three weeks off

Yep, three weeks off work, terrific, and lots of plans.

Firstly, my mum is in hospital and I'll be heading down there to look after her for the first few days.  She had a hernia operation, so no bending, stretching, cooking, cleaning for a little bit.  So I'll feel a bit disconnected over the next few days, no computer, no internet, no scrapbooking AAAARRRGGGHH !!!!   I do have plans of making lots of good nutritious meals for mum's freezer, and I guess there'll be some knitting involved.  I've packed my Michelle Bridges DVD's also so I have no excuse to exercise, just because I don't have my gym handy.

I'll only be back for a day or two and then I head off to Sydney.  A huge Finale party is being planned for the end of this round of 12wbt.  I didn't go to the finale last round as it was in Perth, but there was no stopping me this time.  There's a few local girls going up and I'll be travelling with my new friend Lynn, and we're sooooo looking forward to it.   More about that later.

Then when all that is over and done with, I'll be painting.  Yes I do believe I said that last holidays, the bathroom, toilet and laundry need painting to match our new tiles.   Well Mike has done the toilet ceiling.  Call us procrastinators or time poor, not sure which.   The paint has been bought, just need to crack the wall paint open!

And a few other fun things planned over the next few weeks, one of which involves a lot of colour.  I'm so pumped for this, I'm doing the Color Run in Melbourne this year.  A group of locals will be making the trek to Melbourne to get down and dirty and colourful !


I can't wait.   For those that have no idea what this is about - it's a 5km fun run and each kilometre they bombard you with a different colour, until at the end there's a kaleidoscope of colour everywhere.  The only rule is to wear white.  How fun this will be!

So recently my American friends experienced Halloween, and there's been such fun Halloween goodies come out at Designer Digitals, so I wanted to use some of them to create a page.  I instantly thought of a rickety old house I see not far from here when I'm heading over to the next town.  It always looks so spooky, so I put the black cats to good use and came up with this page.


Credits Designer Digitals.

This house has always made me imagine what it was like in days gone by.   And my journalling went like this:
I drive past this house on the Mortlake-Terang Road and it always looks so spooky. It’s been empty for as long as I remember, but I wonder what it would have been like in its hey day. Children running and laughing out front, the beautiful big block of farmland with chickens clucking, cows mooing and dogs barking, huge cypress trees to shade the afternoon sun. But now it looks to be a shell, all falling down and rickety, with only the echoes of children laughing blowing on the breeze.
And with that, lunch awaits.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Weekly round up!

Yep, the blog has become a bit of a weekly round up lately.  As physical fitness and exercise has become a large part of my life, I find I'm more than likely out and about, particularly with day light savings on us now.  Love DLS!

I'm almost at the end of another 12 weeks on Michelle Bridges 12WBT (12 week body transformation).  And to date I've lost 21.3 kg.  That's 46.8 pounds for my overseas friends.  I'm feeling great, words just can't describe it.  I love that my bestie Sonia is also doing her own weight loss program in Tassie and we are keeping tabs on each other.   Got to love technology, she face-timed me yesterday to show me a new top she had bought, then I face-timed her so she could see me dressed up ready to go out last night.   Love being able to talk face to face like that, modern technology still blows my mind.

So yeah, I went out last night.  Yep yep yep.  Happened to meet one of my long time crushes, teenage obsessions, call it what you will, when Jon English came to town.   A couple of years ago we went to "The Rock Show" where he had taken a group of young and amazingly talented musicians on the road presenting rock and roll through the ages.  We loved it so much that when we heard he was coming back on another tour, this time with "Rock Revolution" with another talented group of young musicians, we jumped at the chance.  I bought tickets so quickly we had plum seats in the 6th row!   Miss Brittany came with us too, even though she'd never ever heard of Jon English in her life, and she had a great time.

I knew we would get the chance to meet him after the show, like last time.  I came armed and ready with the camera this time.  And I turned into a giggling teenager in front of him this time.  Mike honestly had no idea what had come over me.  So much for trying to act cool!

In case you want to read the journalling:
"So I admit it, I have had a long standing ‘crush’ on Jon English. Growing up, this Australian Rock Icon got me through my teenage years. The long hair, the dark sultry eyes, it was all just a bit ‘naughty’ !!

He came to Warrnambool again, this time with the Rock Revolution Show and once again I got to meet him after the show. This time I came prepared with a camera.

Last time I met him back in 2010, I told him I loved the show, admitted that I had his posters on my bedroom wall when I was growing up to which he puffed out his chest, until I added “yes, right next to the Bay City Rollers” which brought out loads of laughter from the rest of the crew. Way to go Carol in the smooth stakes!

This time I wanted to play it cool. I told him I had a great night and asked if we could get a photograph. But once Mike aimed the camera, I slipped my arm around him quickly and there was a look of fear on his face in the photograph, I think in case I had plans of jumping the table and landing on his lap!

Even now at age 63, the man still has it, the voice is still there, as are the moves, albeit a bit slower. But quite frankly he could strut his stuff till he’s 100 and I’d still come back for more!"


Credits Designer Digitals.

So after a huge week last week at work which saw two long standing friends that I work with retire, a new week is about to start without my friends at work, which is quite sad.  For me, not for them, as they have been looking forward to retirement and all the new possibilities it brings.

I, on the other hand, am looking forward to an upcoming trip to Sydney I am making, with lots of possibilities and surprises in store.  Stay tuned.