So tomorrow is Australia Day, and I’m super pumped – I don’t think we did much last year, so this year is going to be lots of fun. My parents are having a BBQ at their place with all the family. I’ve made a zucchini slice/quiche thing to take with me; I’ll be interested to see how it tastes. But most of all, I’m looking forward to a day off work.

I think there’s something about Australians that is so unique – and I’m probably just saying that because I am an Aussie and that’s all I know; I’m sure that every other person from the world’s nationalities feels the same way about their own country’s people – but we’re just so chilled about everything. We’re the world’s lazybums. Today, being the day between the weekend and Australia Day, around half a million Australians took the day off work, with the damage to the economy being estimated at $250 MILLION. And Australia’s population is only 21 million, so what’s that – 2.5% of the population, roughly? But that doesn’t take into account how many of the population are actually employed, so it probably brings it up to around 5%.
Anyway, complete tangent. I was not one of the slackers today – I worked, but there wasn’t really a whole lot to do. I was bored out of my brain, to be completely honest, and really looking forward to coming home.

This is a complete ramble blog entry. I only just realised. I think I’m getting tired. Yup, I am.

I might try vlogging soon – it seems to be the way for a lot of people nowadays, and part of the reason for not blogging so much here now is because I’m typing all day at work, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is type a whole heap.

Anywho – AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!! OI OI OI!

Happy Australia Day, folks

*pst – less than 3 weeks till my birthday!*

So, I went back to work today. Joy, oh joy. As much as I enjoy my job, I dislike routine (hey, I’m an Aquarian), and getting stuck in a routine of getting up, showering, going to work, coming home, eating, sleeping, and doing it all again is just not my cup of tea. My ideal situation would be to work from home, but I know that’s a goal of a lot of people and it’s not easily attainable.

Maybe it’s because it’s only my first day back, but I guess I’m sick of being exhausted all the time. This might be another reason to lose some weight – maybe I’ll get back some of that energy that I’m lacking. But I’m really not that motivated to lose the weight. I need to lose about 23kg before I’m even at a slightly healthy weight.

Fuck it. I need to do it. I need to lose weight. I need lots of healthy, easy recipes though. I want to eat salads, but I’m not a fan of lettuce (I’ve had too many salads with heaps of lettuce that all tastes like dirt). Any ideas? I guess my problem is where do I start?!

I asked our waitress if I could take the leftovers home, but was refused due to ‘health regulations’. That’s fine, and I wouldn’t have worried about it, IF the very same restaurant didn’t offer takeaway as well.

I understand the reason for not allowing ‘doggy bags’ – taking food home, having it in the fridge for a few days and reheating it, only to potentially come down with food poisoning or similar – but what is the difference in me taking home some leftovers from my meal and reheating them, or getting some takeaway food from the same place, not eating it all, and reheating it at home a few days later? Aren’t the potential dangers identical?

The world we live in is full of, in my father’s words, “bureaucratic bullshit”.

August 3rd, 2008, when we moved to Tasmania, I weighed in at 108kg (238lbs). I now weigh 99.9kg (220lbs). So in 12 months, without trying, that’s 8.1kg, or 17.8lbs. I’m pretty impressed with myself – I know I’ve been eating better here than I ever did in Melbourne (as much as I miss the food in Melbourne!). The funny thing is, my world revolves around food more than it ever did – and maybe this is the key. I actually think about what we’re doing for dinner, rather than making a last-minute decision (which normally ended up in pizza or takeaway of some description). I plan out what we’re going to eat, and I do tend to take note of what not only tastes good, but what is less fat and less sugar than something else.

It just goes to show – someone with a mostly sedentary lifestyle for the last 12 months (it’s only since June, since I started work that I’ve become more active), simply by eating better, not necessarily increasing physical activity, can lose weight. Yes, it has taken time, but imagine if I’d also included a regular exercise routine on top of that?!

Time to get back on the Wii Fit!

I’m still unemployed, but still working on this website for the jewellers, like I mentioned a couple of entries back. I am also still studying, although not with as much vigor, since my paid work takes priority, and my teacher never seems to get back to me about the questions I ask, so if they won’t help me I can’t do the work.

I didn’t make it to the Samhain event that I was so looking forward to – basically because we moved house, and we decided to start moving in straight away, I was so exhausted by Friday that I couldn’t see myself enjoying the weekend, so I opted out. I’ll definitely go to the Yule event, coming up in June – I’ve already missed two events, I’m not going to miss another.

Tomorrow we’re going to lunch with Michael’s cousin who is visiting, with his girlfriend, from Adelaide. It should be good to see him, we haven’t seen him in probably 12 months, but I will be glad when it’s over. I just need some time to relax – it’s been go-go-go for the last week. I mean, I only realised yesterday that we’ve already lived in the new place for a week; it feels like we’ve only been here a couple of nights. Madness.

Anyway, I guess that’s a basic rundown of what’s happening with me – nothing hugely exciting but it’s definitely not been boring. We’re heading out for lunch on Sunday with my nana and pop and the rest of my mum’s side of the family for Mother’s Day, then heading back here to ours for dinner (I’m just making pumpkin soup, since we’ll be having a big lunch). So I’m looking forward to that

Anyway, I’ve been busy. I’ve finally got somewhat of a job – I’m doing a website for a local jewellers. Essentially I’ll be running their online side of things – they’ll have an online store and such, and I’m in charge of all that, so it’ll be an ongoing task. I’ll be paid monthly, and the owner of the business said there’s also the possibility of my earning a commission off sales from the website, which is AWESOME. It looks like things are finally starting to look up
Also, we’re looking at getting our own place – we looked at an apartment for rent yesterday, but it was far too small and there weren’t enough powerpoints for us geeky types. Hell, there wasn’t even space for a washing machine, and nowhere to put bathroom products, so we said no. We’re going to look at another place, which is a lot more money (an extra $55 a week) than the one we looked at, but it will hopefully be a lot better. We’ve worked it out and we could survive on Michael’s income alone, but with mine it should be a breeze.

We also got Guitar Hero World Tour! It’s so much fun – I love the drums, finally something I’m good at! We bought it with money that Michael made selling football cards on eBay. Which brings me to my next point – I’m thinking of starting up my jewellery making again – just little beaded things – and selling them on eBay, to bring in a little extra cash. Goodness knows we need as much as we can get right now. So I’m just looking into that now.

School has been highly unmotivating, and I’ve barely touched my work lately. If anyone knows anything about development methodologies, please get in touch with me because I can’t get my freakin’ head around it! (It’s website development, by the way).

Anyway, that’s enough for a quick update. I’ve been flat out otherwise – with this jeweller’s website, mostly, and since my mum’s been working afternoon shifts it’s meant I’ve had to cook for the family, which has been less than inspiring!

I did stocktake on Saturday. It was okay, but I don’t think I’d do it again. It was pretty simple work, very monotonous (just scanning items on racks). The worst thing is that my body was absolutely buggered by the end of it – standing up and walking around for 6 hours without a break to sit down took its toll. Yesterday (Sunday) I could barely walk, and couldn’t even get up out of my seat without assistance – thank god it was a Sunday and Michael was home to help me out. I’ve tried to keep moving but it is very painful. I’m still sore today, and had to get my dad to take me around to the post office to post my bestie’s birthday present. The post office is less than a 10 minute walk from our house, so that’s saying something about the pain I’m in. This is just showing me that I need to get moving more often.

I did go for three 30+ minute walks last week – on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with my mum and our family friend. We’re trying to make it a habit, although it’s difficult for my mum, with shift work, but I at least go with our friend and the dog, and get a half hour in.

As for weight loss, nothing’s happening yet. I hit a low when I put on weight over the last few days, but I haven’t been eating well (despite exercising quite a bit). It’s slowly coming back off, but yeah it was kind of disappointing. Just have to regain my enthusiasm that I had in January.

I put in an expression of interest for school last Wednesday, but am still awaiting someone to contact me to confirm. I hate waiting for people, especially since I’m doing or have done everything I can and then it’s just up to someone else. Freakin’ hell it’s frustrating.

Anyway, totally babbling now. I shall post again in a day or two.

I’ve lost nothing, but I look a little smaller – maybe I’ve toned up a little?? This month was a bad month, due to my birthday, seeing friends I haven’t seen in months and eating out a lot, and emotional eating due to the loss of my kitty. Next month, I will be back on the horse. I promise!

So, I’m now 21 years old. Un-freakin’-believable. It’s kind of weird, because when I was 20 I thought that sounded kind of old, but 21 sounds hip and young. Then next year I’ll be 22, and I’ll feel old again. Mneh.

I had a party. Yup yup. It was awesome. We had three ‘shifts’ of guests planned out:

Shift #1 – My grandparents, and family on my mum’s side, for lunch.
Shift #2 – Pub crawl with my friends and younger cousins on my dad’s bus.
Shift #3 – Everyone else.

Shift #1 went fine – we had a great lunch of basically salads and cold meats (it’s Summer here, remember), and I got some nice gifts (I’ll list gifts at the end, it’s easier). Unfortunately it was during First Shift that I got the call from the vet about Layla, and the best option being to put her to sleep, but I managed to kind of put that to the back of my mind so I could focus on having fun and then deal with that part of life the next day.
Anyway, nothing really eventful happened during First Shift – it was nice, but no party-party yet

People started arriving for Second Shift at about 2pm, and I told my Dad that we’d probably head on our pub crawl at about 3:15pm, just to give people a chance to get to our place. Turned out that the bus battery was flat, and Dad had to call the RACT. Anyway, we ended up getting on the bus for a One-Pub-Pub-Crawl at about 3:45-4ish, which was still fun, to jump on the bus and go for a cruise around, stop in for a drink or two, then head back home.

Shift #3 people were already there, considering the pub crawl started late, and I managed to down a few more drinks whilst mingling with people, eating some food (there was so much food!) and that kind of thing. It wasn’t a huge dancefest or anything – some good beats in the background, and just a get-together, really. I didn’t want anything OTT, so it was just nice to be with family and friends. Plus it was great to see Zandra and Paul, who arrived just in time from Melbourne

We wound up at about 2am – I finished drinking earlier than that because I was starting to feel sick (and I know my limits!) and didn’t want to puke on my birthday, so I had water and a coffee.

Ok, so y’all wanna know what I got, right? Well here goes:
- $370 cash total (woah! a lot of it is already gone )
- $100 JeansWest voucher (I’ll use that to buy clothes when I’ve lost more weight)
- Two $50 Kmart vouchers (already gone, see last post)
- Pink LG KS360 from Michael
- Flowers delivered, from Michael for Valentine’s Day
- Emily the Strange t-shirt
- Emily the Strange bag
- Jason Mraz’s Album
- Two tickets to see Kate Miller-Heidke at a local club.
- Four necklaces, from various people
- A jewellery stand from my Nan
- 21st guest book from my Auntie Vicki
- Wii Fit from my mum and dad (which I’m pretty sure I’ve already mentioned)
- A Spell Kit from my sister and her boyfriend
- A Spell ‘spray’ (essential oil blend) from my sister and her boyfriend
- A bottle of Midori, again from my sister and her boyfriend
- Maxwell Williams Cherry Blossom platter, salad bowl and salad servers from our close family friends Brian and Jan

I think that’s it? I suck if I can’t remember the rest, and I hate leaving things out.

I’ll leave you with some photos – the rest are in a set on Flickr.