Welcome one and all to our new home. We are some fabulous women from around the world. Always focused on the diet - well maybe not but we do have good intentions. And we are a witty, fun group to boot.

Welcome Shad, Teel, Shaker, Annie and any others who wish to join to our new home. Round 6.

I went and created a new thread since we had outgrown our old one and Happy has beaten me to it. So I have deleted the one I made. This looks better anyway.
Focussed Chicks of the World hey, well maybe it is a good omen for my new beginning - maybe I should change the name to Koru - that's the name given to the unfurling of the Fern frond. As you know they are tightly curled up in a ball and slowly unfold or unroll to display the beauty of the fern. It's the name of the symbol on an Air New Zealand planes tail too and if you look it up in the dictionary (Maori of course) it means new beginnings, new journeys, new eras etc. New life even maybe.
So there you go girls, trivia to greet this beautiful Sunday. I'm off out in a few minutes to plant some tomato plants and a Capsicum - bell pepper to you lot up north. I've decided to have a bit of a vege patch this spring. Mind you I think I have overdone it and will be giving tomatoes away right left and centre.
My computer is doing some silly things. It is not behaving well. I thought maybe I had picked up a virus, but it is not that. We are suspecting that the Video Card maybe on the way out. Such joy. But I have had it for a couple of years so maybe it is time for a change. Nothing lasts forever - *sigh*
Last nights Riverfire festival was spectacular. Went out in a boat up the river on a glorious evening, watched the lights come on over the city with a new moon glowing in the sky and Mars gleaming on the horizon. Had a nice if predictable meal of roast dinner = pumpkin was yummy. Passed on the Cheescake. Then there was 35 minutes of incredible co-ordinated fireworks on three sides of the city (the river flows on 3 sides of our city and the bridges were closed to traffic or had reduced lanes). We were also treated to some neat aerobatics earlier in the evening and finally the RAAF came screaming over and did the traditional dump an burn then roared up into the night sky trailing this comet tail of burning fuel. Fantastic and a big thrill for the testosterone set. You should have heard them - you probably did, they made more noise than at the footy grand final when Australia is winning!!!
Took some digital and some film photos. Will put a few of the digitals up asap, but remember I am having some fun with the computer so it may not be today.
Happy, hope we hear from you during the week. Not a fun time for you, I'm sorry.

Here you go, a picture of Brisbane on the river. This was taken before we left the wharf to go up river. Sun was just about to set. City and condos looked great.
The digital does not seem to handle night shots too well. Think the film camera may improve on some of these scenes.

Hi Shad

Nice shot of Brisbane, looks like you and I share this great city
I didn't get to go down to the river this year, I have a 16 week old baby girl, might have been a bit much for her...

We did manage to see the F1-11's dump and burn, I live very close to the city, so manage to run out side when they flew over, was great

Welcome Bunji!

Great picture Shad - sounds like your evening was quite nice. Sorry, didn't mean to tromp on down and start a new thread, was checking in and noticed Suzanne closed our old thread. I started a new one and asked her to post a link over so that we didn't get all messed up.

Am finishing up the last minute packing. Off to the airport in less than 8 hours. Thanks everyone for your prayers and condolences - much appreciated by us both. Check back with you next Saturday. Till then be safe, be good and squeeze a little fun into your lives... because life's too short

Here you go Happy and Bunji. Just to keep them coming, here is another one. Brisbane at the going down of the sun.

The rest will be on webshots tomorrow.

Address for Riverfire Webshots.
http://community.webshots.com/user/joy_clover
Then go to Riverfire

hmm everyone has gone away or has not woken up yet. Come back later

Hi Ladies, phew I made it.. thought for a minute there you had done a runner and not left me a thread or two..! I loved the Koru description Shad made me all patriotic and proud (fluffing up my kiwi feathers!), this little land has got some beautiful treasures that get forgotten about when they are the symbol of some big plane. Anyway thanks for that and yes perhaps we can stop in for a coffee(tea in my case, and juice in Miss5's) when we arrive, it will be a fleeting visit.

Now I have heard from Annie and she is OK, she has been going through lots of family turmoil and is fine and should be back soon, she is still in Woolly, ha ha, not roaming the streets yet!!

I had a good w/end, lovely night out with the girls but got very sick (to many vodka cruisers), I didn't eat anything which was a silly move!! I had yest off work as on Sun we picked up the inlaws and went to their place, they bought the kids TONS of presents so they were pretty pleased. I fell asleep on the couch so we went home and then had a yuck day, not to well, just wanted to die all day really so of course the house was a pig-sty and had no energy to do anything about it. So yest I had the day off and I cleaned my merry way around the house, got back on the bfl wagon which I must say is still going well although this is week 6 now so I am hoping for some good changes soon. Had a cardio this morning and was so tired afterwards, my legs were a bit sore from the workout on Mon so was really hard.

I will look for Mars again, unfortunately we have had very cloudy skies for the last few nights and it rained all last night and this morning so might try again tonight if it is going to be around for a while..?... Happy very sorry to head about FIL and hope DH and the family can rally together to support each other... bye all.

We're on page two. That will never do. We will have Happy fuming at the ears when she gets back. We may even get to be page 3 girls if we are not careful.
I'm still carefully watching my food intake and drinking the water and trying to get in some exercise. Hopefully it will reflect next weekend when I weigh again. This is day 3 of week 1 - 3 weeks and 4 days to month end.
I'm glad I do not work in town permanently. This driving in and out and around in the city is driving me beserk. It takes longer to drive a shorter distance to South Brisbane than it does when you have to go to the other side of the city to work. Ah well it is only for this week so then I am back in Banyo - I will survive

Hi there, well it does seem that some of our followers have dropped off, perhaps everyone is having a very busy week.

We have got a flu epidemic going around this place, felt so tired yest and sore throat, got home and DH said he was the same but overnight I think I got a bit better and he got worse. He was shocking this morning but has gone to work as he loves his job and doesn't want to miss out.

Shad you are lucky you get to travel a bit and see all the places you wanted for free.. do yoy plan to go other places in the future or maybe around Oz? It is fine and sunny here today but I think it might rain, it gets very changeable and the days are getting longer which means.. yippee Spring has arrived last evening we got out of the pools as the kids had swimming lessons and it was still light, last week it was dark at that time, and now at 6am it is light so bring on the summer!!!

It is fathers day this Sun here and then my fathers birthday about 5 days later, Sept 11th ... noone will ever forget that date again.. anyway he gets lotto tickets for fathers day so best I go and get them after work today. BFL still going well although am still a bit scared that I am going to get to week 12 and not much will've happened.. at least i haven't gained I suppose. Shad you did well to stay the same your body must be so set at that way you are going to have to give it a good shake-up!

I'm getting around Oz as much as possible while I am here, then I will have to find someplace else to contract too, which will move me around the world or the country.
Yep, your right Shaker, this old body needs a big shake up to move anything. I have started that this week. I hope that by setting only goals for the next 4 weeks I can stick to them and not fall by the wayside yet again.
After that I'll set some more goals for another period of time. But I find that if I can see the end in sight I can discipline myself to manage it. If I can't see an end, it becomes all too hard.

Hi the chicks of the world

I am sorry I have not been terribly communicative of late.....I did think I had posted on our new thread but I cannot find it,have we lost a thread somewhere? I think I have told you that my blooming tribunal was postponed and that the appeal panel has it in mind to send an out of area doctor to do an assessment, after which the whole affair goes back to tribunal mode....well we seem to have made a minute step in the right direction...Dr. W. is coming to do his assessment on Thursday 11th Sept. I really hate the thought of the whole thing going back to a tribunal hearing after this. Words fail me. Actually I can feel my mood slipping a lot this week...I have lost my appetite most of the time and just want to hide under the bed clothes and do nothing all day....PATHETIC!!
Hope everyone is doing ok, Happy, how is fil.....have I missed any news in the thread change or are things still about the same?
Shad, have you recovered from being in a differant time zone every day now your massive trip is finished?I hope your package arrived in one piece after crossing the pond and didn't need too much ironing and tlc to revive the enclosed
Hellos to Annie, Shaker and all lurkers and escapees.....

Bye bye for tonight, happy dreams to all.

Teel, the reason that happy is not posting at the moment is that FIL passed away last week. She and DH have gone to the East Coast for his funeral etc. I sincerely hope that they can spend some quality time becoming a family of siblings now that FIL is now longer around. I understand he was not the easiest father in the world.
I hope the Doc does his thing and has some understanding as far as your problems go. This thing is dragging on and on. It cannot be doing much good for your physical state or your mental state. Hang in there my little and think positive.
Shaker said that Annie was coming back soon. That will be good. I look forward to her posts.
Weighed in this morning - first time since last Saturday and I have lost 1.5kg. Now weigh in at 74kg. Last Monday I was 75.5. So I have done quite well this week. Long may it last!!!

Hello all, I am back and none too soon. The siblings got along well thank heavens. FIL's wife (recent wife, not my beloved MIL who passed away in 1979) put on a good show - I think we will soon see the sincerity/insincerity of the situation as eventually everyone shows their true colors.

Food was bad as we had mostly sandwich trays and fast foods all week long. I kept pacing back and forth as I could not sit in the house for 14 hours at a time - also bothered my foot to sit for long periods. So I would periodically get up and take short walks. But it was good to see SOME of the family again. DH has the sweetest most delightful aunts, was good to spend some time with them, especially since they are in their 80's and getting along in years. We did go down to the ocean twice, once during the day and once at night. It was pretty, especially at night with an almost full moon shimmering on the water in the distance. And I love the sound of the surf.

I am feeling a bit out of sorts at the moment. Too much switching gears quickly. Now I have to buckle down tomorrow, get back to regular life and dig my heels in - lots of homework to do for my course. Guess it's best to get busy and keep my mind from being angry over some potential injustices I have seen this past week.

On a positive note, we did get hold of some family pictures from when the children were small. DH is scanning them in so the whole family can have a copy for themselves. Among the pile were some pictures when DH and I were dating. I actually have proof that at one point in my life I was skinny. Also when we got married we had a tiny wedding and didn't have formal pictures. Found some my MIL kept from long ago that I didn't have, including a copy of one that was my favorite. It had faded over time and stuck to the glass in the picture frame. Now I have a fresh replacement. Thanks Mom!!!!

May take me a few days to get over my mood here, so forgive me if I lurk a bit but will try to keep up with posting as it is getting rather quiet around here.