Wednesday 18th June

Righto.......

It seems like forever since I did a decent update.......

Oh wait - IT IS!!!!

So here I am, sitting at my desk at work, got my Ipod all charged up and plugged in......

And I can't for the life of me think of what to say!!!!

So, I'm just gonna start typing and see where it takes me....

I will now apologise in advance for the inane ramblings, cos Lord knows it will probably be utterly boring to most of you!

OK....... Our holiday... FANTASTIC!!!!!!

Rhian was great all through it, and I was so proud of her!

I went well prepared for the flight, and had a bag loaded up with colouring books and pens and pencils and stickers and food etc....

The 4 hours seemed to go a lot faster than I thought it would, and the only bummer was, that it was raining when we landed in Sydney and there was lightening too.

Well..... apparently if there is lightening then the ground staff are not allowed anywhere near the plane, so we had to sit out on the Tarmac for what seemed like eternity, when in reality it was only about 45 mins, but after a 4 hour flight that was late taking off to start with, everyone was getting a tad grumpy!

Rhian fell asleep in the taxi on the way to Steph's place, so when she had to be woken up to go inside, she was more than a "little irritated"

Off to bed for her, and we settled in for the first night of our holiday.

The days seemed to fly by, and before we knew it, it was Friday already, and we went out for dinner to a Chinese restaurant with Aunty Steph and Uncle Chris.

It was amazing!!!!

The restaurant is owned by a work associate of Chris's, everything was laid on for us - totally fabulous!!

Here is our main course:

Pretty impressive huh?!?

The Crab I mean... Not Jeremy!!! lol

The whole night was amazing, and we were treated like royalty by a group of amazingly friendly wonderful people - HOW COOL!!!

We were lucky enough to get to go to the races while we were there, and it was abso-fricken-lutely PERFECT that Uncle Chris had a winner on the day!!! (He is a racehorse trainer)

What a FANTASTIC atmosphere and a truly great day!!

After the races, the group that we had been with all came back to Steph & Chris's place and a famous "WallerBar" party got underway!

It was an absolute scream a minute and I haven't laughed so much in a long long time. At one stage, I was even dancing on the coffee table with my little sister - not sure what I thought I was doing of course, but at the time I am sure that I thought I looked FAB-U-LOUS!!!!

Luckily Rhian was safely tucked up in bed sound asleep at the other end of the house by this stage!! hehehe

I ended up taking myself off to bed at some stage, and although I can't remember it at all, Jeremy had to get me undressed and put me to bed properly, cos I was in no fit state to do anything myself!!!!

Sunday morning dawned, and I spent the majority of the day on my knees in the toilet - WILL I EVER LEARN?!?!?!?!

The rest of the holiday flew past in a blur of shopping malls, meals out, Lollipops Playland, more shopping, a visit to the Aquarium, more meals out, Darling Harbour, more shopping and then before we knew it, it was time to come home again.....

We are gutted that we didn't get to go to the zoo, but I am sure that we must have struck the worst weather that Sydney has seen for a while, as it rained every day of the last week!!!

Never mind - we will get to the zoo next time - once we have paid this trip off!!! hahahaha...

As mentioned in my previous post, we did have to cut our trip short by a day due to a very close family friend dying, but it was one of those situations when there was option but to come home early.

Make sense?

I certainly wouldn't recommend changing your tickets with Air New Zealand from Australia though!!

What a total shambles!!!

I was kept on hold for 57 minutes on an international toll call while the woman on the other end tried to sort out our bookings!

In the end, I yelled at her, she burst in to tears, and had to hang up to compose herself!! Anyway, once we got home I happened to check my VISA details on line and it turns out that she quoted me $675 NEW ZEALAND DOLLARS, but has charged my VISA for $675 AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To say that I was slightly pissed off when I saw that would have been understatement, and I have since spent at least another hour and a half on a couple of phone calls to Air New Zealand to try to sort it out again!

I have been promised a phone call on two occasions now, but still haven't heard anything back, and have since sent them an email requesting someone contact me.

NOTHING!

Shocking service, totally unnecessary, and TOTALLY UNPROFESSIONAL!

Hmph - can ya tell I am pissed at Air New Zealand?!?! lol Moving on............

So now we are all back at work and back in to "normal" life again, and I hate it already!!!!!

Work is slow at the moment, so that makes it tedious for me, and I am left trying to find things to do to fill in my day - like updating my journal!! haha

I'm broke after spending too much on holiday - story of my life!!

I've gained about a million kgs in the past few months (this ISN'T a weight loss blog anymore) and I am struggling to fit any of my gorgeous clothes, so that makes me grumpy too!!!

BUT.......... on the upside.............. My GORGEOUS sister has made me see what it is like to live in a UNCLUTTERED home, so I have come back and de-cluttered our place!!

Our bedroom is now (mostly) clear of "crap" the lounge is de-cluttered, my car is de-cluttered, I just have Rhian's room and the office to do and I will have a de-cluttered house!!!! YAY!!!!!!! Thanks Steph!!!!!!

I have managed to consolidate some bills and pay another one off, so my finances are looking positive for a change.

I now have a budget to stick to, and all going well, things can only get better!!!

I have a SERIOUS shopping addiction, and my drawers and wardrobe are literally bursting with clothes and shoes that I have bought and not needed.

I have a terrible terrible habit of buying clothes without trying them on, and of course this leads to a drawer overflowing with items with the tags still attached, just waiting for the day when I lose weight and can fit them!!!!!

My spending addiction is out of control, and I have finally admitted that it is a real issue.

People around me know that I am forever buying crap, be it for myself or for other people, or for the house etc.... And that has seen me get in to debt on several occasions - as my ex-husband can testify to.

So here I am saying NO MORE!!!!!

The credit card limit has been severely chopped down to a figure that is much more realistic. And the budget is in front of me in black and white - I HAVE to stick to it!!!!!

GO ME!!!!!

Have been looking at hiring a treadmill today..... I HAVE to do something to move this lard off my ass!!!

That is another thing that my beautiful little sister made me see - although I'm not sure if she realised that she did or not! And that is the fact that I can either sit on my ass and eat whatever I want to, pretending that it doesn't matter, and that I will start eating healthy "tomorrow", I can sit on my butt and complain that none of the clothes in my wardrobe fit anymore, I can struggle up the stairs to my office every day, puffing like an old man with emphysema............... OR............ I can get off my ass and DO something about it!!!

I can put down the chocolate and the lollies and chippies etc and take responsibility for my life, and my future!!!

So, on that note, I am now in to day 3 of being back on track completely, and although it is bloody tough going, I KNOW that I can do this!!!

I'm not about to turn this into a weight blog, nor am I going to bore you with numbers or measurements. But just take it from me, that since I gave up smoking in January, the weight has piled on, and I WON'T accept it anymore!

Nor will I brush it off with the usual excuses........ I'm fat, I NEED to lose weight, and I KNOW that I can do it. So I will!

Anyway, the treadmill that I am looking at also comes with a challenge......

Hire it for 6 months, lose 10kgs and if you do, you get to KEEP the treadmill!!!!!

I'm thinking that it is a bit of a goer, cos I SO KNOW that I can do it!!!!!!

I'll just have to make sure that I have somewhere to put it........ better ask Jeremy!! lol

We had a photo shoot with Rhian on Saturday, and we get to view the photos tomorrow night.

I KNOW that there will be loads of pics that I fall in love with, as the photographer took over 200 shots, but the prices have put me off already!

$125 for a "small" 7 x 5 inch shot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is just plain robbery if you ask me!!!!!!! CRAZY!

But....... I have a budget, and I intend on sticking with it - YAY ME!!!!!!!!!

And that's it........

Oh yeah - I'll leave you with this little pearler that Rhian told me last night:

***WARNING - MAY CONTAIN TOO MUCH INFORMATION!!***

I was getting her changed in to her pyjamas for bed, and it was time to take her knickers off.

She turned to me and said: "I tried to wipe my own bum at Daycare mummy...................... but there's still skiddies in my undies!!"

How the heck was I not supposed to laugh at that one?!?!?!?!?!