G'day all,

It is friday yippeeeee!!!!

Firstly I do hope none of you are affected by the dreadful fires that are in parts of your country. They are just so scarey.

Last night we went out to dinner with some business people from America (Atlanta) and it was quite a mild night so we sat out on the sidewalk. The 2 fellows had not been to Sydney before and couldn't get over the number of people out on the streets at night. They said in Atlanta after dark you see very few people on the streets Is that really true? Both men were extremely racist and it took me all my time to hold my tongue (dh was very proud of me ), I can be a tad too outspoken at times
Nevertheless it was quite a pleasant evening.

I don't know either where we collect all the 'stuff' from but living out of suitcases does make us a lot more conscious as to what we purchase and we remind each other all the time to ask the question 'do we really need it'. I have brought back some clothes to wear to the office. I was pleasantly surprised that one of my favourite skirts still fitted very nicely

I received my certificate last night for having succesfully completed the basic 4x4 wheel drive course, very impressive

The best news till last, our dd and her dh were succesful with their bid for a 2 bedroom unit. It will be a start for them. They intend to live there for the next 5 years then sell the unit and use that money as a deposit to buy a family house in Adelaide.
At the moment dh is pulling his hair out (the little he has left ) trying to raise the finance with out bank in Adelaide whilst we live in Sydney and the property is in Melbourne
We rang our bank manager whilst we were in Adelaide to find out how we could best organise this if their offer was accepted.
Thank goodness we live in a world with all this technology of faxes, mobile (cell) phones, e-mail etc. which has made the task a little easier.

I must be off, having started the new thread I cannot remember what everyone said other than Peggy having to take her mil to the hospital with a bad nose bleed. Hope she is OK. I also have to say that we all have mobile phones and they certainly are very handy especially in case of emergency.

Have a great weekend all
Cheers
Maria

Well guys, I haven't talked about that subject of weight in awhile. I have decided that I just cannot go to WW each and every week. It was just too depressing, but I have been very good for a couple of months. The only bad thing is that I don't weigh so don't know how I am doing except for my clothes. My clothes are looser and it is a wonderful feeling. Have you all read about our country becoming the most overweight country in the world? Personally, I think it is because of the all-you-can-eat restaurants. I was sitting at Wal-Mart the other day looking at people (one of my favorite activities) and just noticed how heavy so many people are. Even kids. There are very few who are of a normal weight. That makes me sad. We are killing ourselves with food.

Maria - good for you for holding your tongue. I would have had some trouble with that. I have a lot of trouble who are racists.

Going to have a good weekend. Next week our vacation starts and we are going back to Red River, NM with the whole family--my sister and her grown kids and two of mine and their families. So looking forward to getting out of here. When I come back, will have a new boss. Don't want to think about that now.
Glenda

Hi Everybody
Glenda does "NM" stand for New Mexico? Is that where you are going on holidays? I was trying to think of what other state that could stand for and that is the only one I could think of.
I hope you have a great holiday and that your new boss is someone as nice as your old one.
Maria good for you for getting your certificate in the 4x4 driving course. Well done.
About racists.......Today I went to the Princess's school. Her Grade 1 class was having a lunch hour picnic and family was invited, so of course I went. Lunch hour bell rings and all 300 or so munchkins come running outside (we had a very lovely hot summer day today). The children, coming out of the school, were big, small, thin, chubby, white, black, oriental, and aboriginal. They ran together, played ball together and exchanged lunches with each other. People who are racist have been TAUGHT to hate, and that is very very sad. These young children today, were just that, young children, playing outside on a very nice day, and having the time of their lives. They haven't learned to hate. You know gals, I was thinking, that on 3FC I have NEVER read where someone asked, "what colour are you"? We never "see" each other so we could be any colour, and we all get along just fine.

Just dropped in to say Hello. I haven't been around that much in past days but still think of all of you. As I had a few minutes to spare, and was able to get to the computer..........

Slavika how are you since your trip to Hawaii?

Maria Congratulations on your daughters aquisition of a unit in Melbourne, it must be hard when you are up there and they are down here, but knowing you not impossible. Also, aren't you clever passing that 4x4 wheel drive course. Congrats.

Peggy I hope that your Mum is OK again afer her nose bleed and the trip to hospital.

Survivor You sound as if you have lost weight since I last was on keep up the good work.

Regards to all

Ash/Jenye.

Good Morning to all of you

Been a while since I've posted again. I do stop in and read all the time just seems like I never have that extra time to post unless it on a weekend. Sorry..........

Glenda Sorry to hear that you are giving up on Weight Watchers. But to each his own. The only thing I ask is you find someone to be accountable to so what you've lost doesn't return. Off My soap box.

Maria your are just so busy all thie time. Your here your there we never know where you'll be or what you'll be doing. Do you ever get tired?

Slavika I agree so much about race. I grew up as an army brat. I didn't know there was a difference in the way peple were treated until I moved to Georgia in the 60"s. What a shock I got. Then I married a man from Florida. Took many years before he began to see things my way

We have the family here today. Just finished breakfast for the tribe. My oldest boy has his daughter for the next month so it is a celebrtion to have here around.

Went shopping yesterday got three new dresses. One is a long sleevless dress. I don't userally do long nor sleevless . But it is so cute and comfortable. Also bought Strawberries for a strawberry pie



Got to go . My weight is going good. Still 5 pounds below goal I am thrilled.

Karen

G'day all,

Monday morning and a glorious morning it is, clear blue skies and sunshine, expected top of 18 degrees. Cannot complain seeing this is winter.

Glenda I am a bit like you, I don't weigh anymore (scales are broken) and do what I think is right and try and stick as much as I can to the principles of weight watchers. I was very pleased to have fitted into some clothes that I had in Adelaide that I thought would be way too tight. I must be doing something right

Slavika you are absolutely right about this race thing, here (3fc) it doesn't even occur to me what colour a person might be.
On this board, particularly this group, we are so much the same no matter what background, colour etc.

Jeney Good to see you post, hope things are going well for you. I believe the Melbourne winter has been particularly cold this year, hope you are keeping warm
DD and her dh bought a unit at Mordiallic, a block away from the beach. The unit is pretty ordinairy but in a good spot so close to the beach. My dh is in Melbourne for the next couple of days and hopes to go and have a look at it. Finance is just about arranged so all is 'full steam ahead'.

Karen Yes I do get tired and homesick DH is particularly down at the moment. I asked him yesterday why he is unhappy and he just said that if we were home he could have gone for a ride on his bike, potter in the garden (he hates gardening ) etc.etc. It is unusual for him to feel this way, no doubt he will snap out of it soon. It is only another 3 months or so until we finish here.
I am looking at doing a course in learning more about 'Dreamweaver' which is run in August for 2 full Saturdays but then I also read an advertisement in the paper doing a crash course teaching english. I thought that might be a good thing to do if we were to go to China or India. So many decisions to make!

DS received a 5 page letter from ex girlfriend wanting to get back together again. The break is not going to be easy.

Have a great day/night all
Cheers
Maria

Peggy: Hope your MIL is ok. Let us know!

Maria: Good for you holding your tongue. Its hard sometimes. Glad your DD got the new 2 bedroom unit! Bet they are happy! Congrats on the certificate for 4 wheeling Sorry to hear that DS got a letter from Ex. Sounds like she doesnt want to let go at all

Glenda: Your Vacation sounds fun! Never been there, but I heard its really nice. Enjoy!

Slavika: Great story. Its so true. Kids dont care what or who you are. They just have fun. Never did understand racism myself.

Karen: New dresses! Oh boy! I love to buy new clothes! Sounds like you are doing good, just busy.

Been pretty busy myself. Good to see you Jayne!
Best get busy.

G'day all,

It is getting towards the end of my 'working' day. I am having my hair cut straight after work. I am sure the hairdresser has put something in my hair to make it grow, I cannot believe how much it has grown since my last cut

DH is returning from Melbourne tonight. When he goes to Melbourne I make up a 'showbag' for dd and her dh. This time they have made a 'showbag' up for us as a 'thank you'. DH said he would bring it home so we can open it together!
DD is still totally over the moon with the purchase of their 'own' place, they have lots of plans for the small garden that they have. Hopefully I might be able to go over to see the place sometime in August. They are moving in late July and I have enrolled in a computer course the middle 2 saturdays in August, so it will have to be late August.

Not much else happening at this side of the world.

Cheers
Maria

Hi Everybody
Peggy I hope your Mom is ok. I will have to go back to the old thread to see if you said you were going away for a few days. Geez....my mind.
I guess Ann will be away a little longer. I think she said she might check in with us. I hope she is having a lovely holiday. Karen always nice talking to you again. How often does your son get his daughter? I guess it is a special time for all of you when you see her.
Maria LOL is a "showbag" like a bag filled with little treats and surprises that you are "giving" to the other person as a gift, or is it something you just want to "show" the other person, but it's for yourself? I bet your DD is excited. It's nice to be in your own place and fix it up however you like. When I watch some of those garden decorating shows on TV, they can do marveleous things with just the smallest of gardens. Jenye I am doing very well. I had the rest of the dental work done in my mouth when I returned from Maui, now the only thing is I am still carrying around some of that "holiday weight". YUCK!! I got a new little car, and that is sure a pleasure to drive. I am thinking about decorating the livingroom/dining room/TV room, and having some pieces recovered. If I go ahead with the work, we likely will not be going to Maui this year, which is a little bit sad. It's not too sad for me today, because the weather is beautiful, but come winter I likely won't be very happy about staying home.
You never said, what have you been up to????Well today is tea time and I made a Lemon-Raspberry Pound Cake, from the Weight Watcher site. It turned out very nice, and I hope the gals like it. We will go to the lake this weekend I guess if the weather stays nice, as it's our LONG weekend, with Monday being "Canada Day". Talk to you all later

G'day all,

Another beautiful winter's morning here. I have been a bit slack and have caught the ferry to work the past 2 weeks. There has been a bit of publicity about the prevention of cancer and one was to have a brisk walk at least 2 or 3 times a week. So I thought I had better get into the walking again and I walked to work this morning It is amazing that afte just 2 weeks not making it a regular thing, I really noticed the difference this morning, huffing and puffing up the hilly streets in the city. No more ferry rides or buses for me!

Slavika You obviously know exactly what a 'showbag' is, yes it is a bag with lots of treats etc. We have a yearly 'Show' in all capital cities where the farmers show off their cows etc and manufacturers of a variety of products prepare 'showbags' with lots of samples of what they produce. Once upon a time the bags were free but as the years go on, showbags are now quite expensive. I just get some treats together for dd of stuff that I know they probably would not buy, I get a real kick out of putting it together and whilst dh complains that he has to carry this heavy showbag on board his flight, I noticed last week as we were in the supermarket that he found a few treats for the kids as well
Our 'showbag' that the kids prepared for us was lovely and so slimming , a box of Lindt chocolates and a bottle of Baileys Irish Cream. They had also made a card for us which was very sweet and touching

Hair is pretty short but I am happy with it. He is just the best hairdresser and I will be sorry to say goodbye to him when we leave Sydney.

Nothing much else to report,
Cheers
Maria

Slavika- Once a year for a month is all we get to see her.
Maria- We call those sShowbags-Care packages.
Got to go
Karen

I just don't know where the time is going. When Slavika said Canada Day is Monday I realized that it will be July. Time is going too fast isn't it? My mil is fine now. She had to go to the hospital and have her nose cauterized [sp?] on Friday. That must have done the trick. I am doing a 2 day patch test on my forearms. It looks lovely. I have four big old patches on each arm. I really didn't think I would qualify for it and was sort of hoping that I wouldn't. I can't go in the sun or get them wet. Right!! It is so hot and humid here this week. Jenye glad that you stopped by. Miss you when you are not here. Slavika that cake sounds too yummy. Maria glad that your dd got her place. I wish I was that close to a beach. You certainly keep busy. Hope your son is doing o.k. and gets everything over with soon. He doesn't need any long letters from the ex. I was going to ask what a showbag was but I see it was answered. I sort of pictured it like that. Glenda you listen to Karen and don't let the lbs come back. Make them gone forever. I keep fighting the same 3. Off one day and back the next. Have a nice vacation. Lily are still working too hard? Billy Graham is in town for a mission. Maybe he can promote some racial healing here. See you all later,

All - I didn't say I was through with WW, just not weighing in every single week. I and a friend will still go monthly. We are even still journaling.

Maria - occassionally you say a phrase that is new to me, but in the context I usually get an idea of what you mean. Not bad for halfway around the world. Yes, we do care packages all the time here for our kids, so show bags is pretty close.

Yes, Slavika, NM stands for New Mexico. It is in the mountains. With my sister's 4 grown kids and my two and their families it is quite a convention. The cousins have fun together and the kids do too. They will shoot the rapids, ride horseback, shop, and play games--volleyball and board games. Just right now don't want to think about coming back.

About racism, what a sad thing it is! My dad was pretty racist, but not even aware that he was. It was just what was the norm at the time. So glad we are more enlightened than when I was growing up. People are people.
Glenda

G'day all,

It seems like only yesterday that I wrote, 'its friday yippeeee'.
Well friday has come around again and what a friday it has been so far!
Started off well, as I was crossing the bridge I was greeted by a group of people who were handing out coffee mugs to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Pyrmont Bridge.
http://www.shfa.nsw.gov.au/pyrmontbridge/

I got to work and as I was about to post we lost all power and that was off for 90 minutes They are refurbishing the building I am in (goodness knows why, it looks perfect to me ) and somebody must have cut the wrong cable or whatever. We are up on the 32nd floor and once I realised that no lifts were going either, all I could think was that at least I wasn't stuck in the lift. . We kept on getting PA announcements 'not to panic' which made me quite nervous, however all is well now.

Glenda New Mexico sounds great for a holiday. I know what you mean about your Dad, in those days people weren't even aware when they were being totally racist. I remember migrating to Australia by boat and we went on shore in Port Said (Egypt) the way my parents spoke about 'the Arabs' was just amazing. My father kept a diary which 3 years ago I typed out, it was unbelievable how superior he felt we were compared to 'those Arabs', he meant no malice but to read this 40 years later it makes you realise that we have come a long way.
Good luck with WW, I just think being aware and the journaling are some great things that I learned from WW.

Peggy good to hear your m-i-l is OK again, can be a bit scary with nose bleeds, you wonder where it all comes from!
You are right the last thing ds needs is a long letter from ex girlfriend, I will be pleased when her stuff is moved out of my house and they have come to some agreement about their shared posessions.
When you write about hot humid weather, I am so pleased to be having winter. Sydney is a shocker for hot and humid summers, I hate it. Hopefully we will be gone before it gets too hot here.

Slavika what do you celebrate on 'Canada Day' is it similar to our 'Australian Day' when we remember our pioneers etc.

Off to the footy this Sunday. We haven't seen an Australian Rules Football game for a long time, (in Sydney they predominently play rugby ) so we are looking forward to it.
Where I live is a 'quilting and needlecraft' exhibition so I will be going there on Saturday and DH can take himself off to the movies.

Have a great weekend all......
Cheers
Maria

This will be my last post for at least a week. We are leaving for the mountains early Monday morning. On Sunday we will be going to OKC to see Austin in his baby pageant. Honestly, his parents are the most stereotypical first-time parents I have ever seen! Of course, he is cute and he NEEDS to be in a beauty pageant! They also have to call us and tell us how his doctor's visits are, how in the top percentile he is! You know the drill! I wonder if we were this funny with our first.

I have been to the eye doctor this morning. Just got back. I got these custom-made gas-permeable contacs made. I have an eye disease, keratakonis(?), so they are hard to fit. I have to buy all new eye makeup after work. Seems it is coating my tears and then the contacs so I don't see very well. You know, I think it takes a VILLAGE of caretakers to keep me going--eye doctors, gynecologists, oncologists, beauty operators. I am just a walking money factory for them.

Anyway, when I get back July 8th, I will be the only one in the office for 3 days. Won't even have a new boss here yet. I don't want to come back so I will do a Scarlett O'Harrah and "think about it tomorrow" or not at all.

Have a great 4th or Canada Day or whatever. We all have to have holidays to get through the non-holidays. Glenda