Party time!

Our Christmas party on Saturday afternoon and evening seemed to go well, I certainly had fun and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one.

We began the afternoon with the traditional sharing of diseases. What? That's not part of your usual Christmas celebrations?

Viv, aka tigtog, fared particularly badly on the contagion front.

A little later on, just as Adam had been obliged to duck out for a few minutes, this strange man dressed in a completely inappropriate fashion for a summer day in Sydney, turned up carrying a sack full of goodies.

The kids seemed to know what he was there for!

After Santa left we got stuck into serious eating of all manner of munchies brought along by our wonderful guests - delicious dips, munchable veggies, scrumptious fruit, tofu balls of awesomeness, salad, shortbread, brownies, cookies, gingerbread, icecreams - thank you so much to everyone! (I'm not going shopping for at least a week.) Clara had a field day clearing up scraps of ham as it was carved but was saved by the wonderful ZB many, many times over from potentially disastrous encounters with chicken bones from the BBQ chooks.

Margaritas and mango daiquiris were distributed, the children stuffed themselves silly with chips and sugar, and we settled down to party on into the night.

Browncoats sure know how to have a good time!


(Ok, that may have been a little bit staged...but only a little!)

Eventually it all got too much for Clara, even the screaming slingshot monkey wasn't enough to get her moving.

There are photos, and even a video, of the exploits of rather later in the evening, but, as both photographer and subjects were rather worse for wear by then, those images will not be seeing the light of day. Suffice to say there was raucous singing along to Meatloaf and The Blues Brothers and I shall leave the rest to your imagination. We finished up with a viewing of Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog, we had to, there was someone who HADN'T SEEN IT!!!

Adam and I got to bed at 4am. It was totally worth it. But I did rather wish I could spend Sunday doing what Clara decided was the best way to deal with the morning after.

Find sunny patch. Flop. Snooze.

It's been a long day

You know how I said I might try ice-skating today? Well, I did.

I was really apprehensive because I had memories from the last time I tried, years ago, of being so distressed that all I wanted to do was hide somewhere and cry. I remembered that my feet had been in agony but I couldn't remember what it had been like on the ice. Was I still able to skate (I used to go regularly for sport in high-school and had taken lessons when I lived in the US) or was it just an exercise in frustration and humiliation?

Turns out I can still skate. Sort of. But the feet? OMG OW! No doubt it was partly down to the crappy hire skates but I'm quite sure it wouldn't be nearly so bad if I was lighter. All the pressure of my 130kg resting on thin metal blades instead of spread across the soles of nice comfortable shoes had me in some serious pain after only 2 circuits of the rink. Damn. I wonder if it'd be bearable if I had my own skates? I've coveted my own pair for many, many years and at least now I wouldn't grow out of them. Anyway, I made Caitlin happy by giving it a go (we arrived a short time before Caitlin's friend and her mum) and I was able to help her friend get started by doing another 2 circuits (whimper!) the first time holding her hand the whole way and the second time just being encouraging as she tottered around on her own. After that Caitlin took over the hand-holding and coaching duties and I got to sit and chat and let my feet recover.

I think the reason I couldn't remember being still able to skate from last time was because I'd been so overwhelmed by the pain and humiliation of my fat getting in the way of being on the ice, this time the pain was still there but the humiliation is gone, so no wanting to cry.

Caitlin and friend's arm

My very wonderful mum had the boys this morning, I also dumped the dog on her with the suggestion that she and the boys could fill in the time by going for a walk - this is less cheeky than it sounds because my mum is a going for walks fanatic. She volunteered to look after them so that I'd be able to give Caitlin some one-on-one time, which was great, but it did mean that although I was already half-way to the city I had to go back home and retrieve the other 2 offspring before heading back into the city to meet up with people for Nixy's birthday party at Lowenbrau.

I decided to relax my no toys at the table rule and let them bring something to keep them occupied in the hope of having a relaxing lunch. HA! It kinda sorta worked...for a while. I still spent a significant portion of my lunch time trying to quash squabbles, begging not to be whinged at and threatening to cancel the planned trip to the movies to see Clone Wars tomorrow.

This pic is a touch blurry but the expression on Tom's face just had to be shared

We ordered the platter for 2 to share amongst the 4 of us but it still defeated us.

Happy Birthday Nixy!


(We found Adam's and his brother's steins in the glass cabinet at the end of the table there.)

David refused to give me the dessert menu until I'd taken this photo. This was the last of the relatively harmless silliness. After this it got a bit ugly *sigh*

The afternoon culminated in a fairly impressive melt-down from Tom complete with tears and screams of "I hate you" directed at his brother. Note to self: the times when you really hope they'll be on their best behaviour, expect the worst, when it doesn't matter, they'll be angelic, that's just the way these things work.

We got back to the car and they asked to listen to Abba on the way home. They all sang along for the entire trip. We got home and they'd transformed back into reasonable human beings and have played happily together for the rest of the day. And now they're asking for food.

How can they possibly be hungry? There was all that MEEEEEAT!

*goes to conjure dinner*

PS. I need a foot massage.

Good day

The beginning of my day:

Adam has been making me awesome breakfasts for almost 20 years, this morning I said I was craving pancakes and bacon and eggs. I got up, had my shower, got dressed...et voilà!

The middle of my day:

I took Caitlin shopping. She ended up with FOUR pairs of shoes. They were: school shoes which cost a bloody fortune, long black boots at 25% off bought slightly big in the hope they'll be good for next winter and 2 pairs of crappy flats from Kmart which cost $5.60 a pair and will probably do horrible things to her feet. She had ice-cream, I had an affrogato and no-one whinged about anything. (My last shoe shopping expedition with kids was an unmitigated disaster.)

The end of my day:

We spent a very pleasant evening sitting around chatting to a big bunch of Browncoats at Di & Bren's engagement party. Here they are doing the cake cutting thing.

They seem pretty pleased with themselves. Congratulations guys :)

Now for some photos

We arrived in Brisbane on Friday evening to be greeted by Adam's long lost twin brother...or maybe it was Joe, fellow Browncoat, organiser of shindigs and generally evil guy. When Joe was heading home on Sunday evening there was a brief "this jacket feels strangely wrong" incident :)



I don't have many photos from Saturday at Abbey, but Adam did take a fair few of us playing around at the archery range which was being run by the Companye of Northumbria. Here we have Caitlin in her very non-authentic outfit, it's a miracle that skirt stayed up all day, good thing she had her viking belt to wear with it.



And here's me trying not to be outshone by my own kids. (Thank you weather for not making the wearing of a woollen dress a completely insane idea.)



Tom was so fascinated by the lady doing back strap weaving that she eventually gave in and let him have a go - child labour, it's historically accurate! We almost bought him a kit so we could put him to work at home.



Later in the day, after we'd bought a couple of bows for the kids, David decided to try his hand at the range.



On Sunday we managed to arrive early enough to get ourselves seats in the grandstand to watch the official opening and grand parade. The jousters were first in line followed by representatives of all the re-enactment groups participating in the festival.



The New Varangian Guard



NEMAS



Prima Spada



There are more Abbey Festival photos on my Flickr account too if that wasn't enough pageantry for you.

Sunday evening saw us having dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and then heading back to the apartments to sit around weaving tall tales about the fearsome and mysterious Sea Venison. Much silliness :D

On Monday we went shopping for woollen fabric and were able to buy 2 rolls of blanket type stuff. It's all very exciting if you happen to be a dark ages re-enactor living in Sydney because there is NO ONE in Sydney selling pure wool fabric at non-ruinous prices. The place we got it from is actually an equestrian supplies place - it's horse blanket material!

We then headed south stopping for lunch at Cabarita Beach where we took a few moments to get some sand between the toes and collect a shell or twenty.



We stayed the night at Aqualuna resort in Coffs Harbour and had dinner at a very nice pizza place in town which I now can't remember the name of and my googlefu isn't helping because the one possible result (Amalfi Italian Pizzeria Restaurant) isn't leading me to any reviews, maps or pics to confirm one way or another. Anyway, it was awesomely yum, and not too pricey.

At the breakfast buffet the next morning I was rather taken by the sugar packets, my favourite is the "With your luck, it's probably salt" one.



Tuesday morning was spent at the Big Banana, we did the plantation tour and watched the AV presentations, took the obligatory "big thing" photo and had a surprisingly edible lunch at the cafe before piling into the car for the trip back to Sydney.



Then we were home. And now there is laundry. And grocery shopping. And cleaning. Damn, holidays are hard work!

Hub Productions is bringing Nathan Fillion downunder!

Hub Productions presents "Serenity" Syd 10th, Melb 11th May 2008

Oh, and Ron Glass too :) I've had a VIP ticket to this event reserved since way back in April last year when they announced a convention which promised 3 Big Damn Heroes, no names confirmed, and have been waiting all that time for confirmation of Captain Tightpants' attendance. It'll be nice if we get a 3rd cast member as well but even if we don't it'll be well worth the wait!

I blog therefore I am

When we were driving all those hours on Thursday and Friday I found myself thinking about what I would post if only I had managed to get around to setting up blogging from my mobile. So I picked up a pad of paper and a pencil and began doing it the old-fashioned way. Adam laughed at me.

Thursday, January 10, 2008
I have wheels

We began the day with a trip out to Glenorie with 2 yowling cats in the back of the car. Tom apparently found this hysterically funny greeting each mournful "Merrrowwwwl" with loud giggling. This got old very quickly.

Next was a quick trip to the shops, new sunnies for the kids. a new portable DVD player for the car and some activity books ( I claim this to be mindful consumerism and money well spent on preserving our sanity).

Then home to pack the car. While I was doing that my new bike was delivered. I hopped on and wobbled my way round the cul-de-sac a few times. David laughed at me.

It felt really good to be back on a bike, I haven't ridden for probably 15 years! I'm looking forward to this.

Friday, 11th January, 2008
A little too close for comfort

As we drove towards Melbourne in the afternoon there loomed ahead of us a bank of dark grey cloud. Fat drops of rain began to spot the windscreen, lightning flashed on the horizon.

Then suddenly we were in the thick of it, the rain began in earnest and the wind rose.

Flash! Bang! Less than 100m ahead in the trees beside the road lightning struck and a branch fell to the ground in a burst of flame. As we passed the now blackened patch of grass another strike grounded just behind us on the other side of the road.

I've always wanted to see lightning strike but I'd prefer not to be quite that close in future.

Saturday, January 12th, 2008
Sun, swimming and shooting

The Golden Valleys campsite is lovely, the kids (big and small) had much fun on the trampoline and in the pool. I was persuaded to join in a game of battleships which involves trying to swim past the person who is in while they try to grab you with their eyes closed. It was fun, and surprisingly strenuous! Adam got himself designated archery range supervisor and we had a good play around with the weaponry. I'm reasonably pleased with the results I got out of my longbow on her first outing but as mentioned I do need to work on my technique out of self-preservation if nothing else. Either that or get Adam to make me a full length arm guard.

These 2 pics shamelessly pinched from magdalena. Man there are so many things wrong with what I'm doing there.

These are the slightly faded versions 3 days later.

The evening entertainment was duly entertaining and there was plenty of good food, fun and booze involved.

Sunday, January 13, 2008
Time to pack up already?!

It was COLD this morning! Tom wanted to swim and was mightily displeased when we said no. I cooked bacon (1kg) and eggs (12) for breakfast till I'd had enough, after which it was a case of every man for himself. Then we packed, scoffed a makeshift lunch of left-overs and shoe-horned ourselves back into the car. Why is there always more stuff going home than you packed in the first place?

Leish took us to her parents' place to show us around and introduce us to the horses, they were gorgeous, horses are good people :)

Monday, January 14, 2008
If I hear anything else about Ben Ten my head will explode

Tom spent the vast majority of our time in the car this trip watching Season 2 of Ben Ten. When he wasn't watching he was talking about it. I suppose if I'd actually listened to any of it I'd know all about the various aliens that Ben can transform into and all about the various enemies he encounters. I'm rationing him to a few minutes of ear-bashing me at a time, Adam on the other hand has promised to watch it with him, what a nice dad (sucker!).

I'm heartily sick of takeaway food, we've had far too many stops at maccas and I need some real food, next time we travel like this I'm doing what my mum always did (and which always pissed me off when I was younger) and will be making sandwiches and taking decent food along for the road trip.

We did the Rutherglen detour stopping at Stanton and Killeen for their muscat and other wines and Gooramadda for their olives and olive oil. After that there was no more space in the car so after lunch at the Tuileries cafe we were homeward bound.

Which brings us to today

My house is trashed, there are bags of stuff everywhere, there's a mountain of washing to do. So what do I do? Invite friends of Tom and Caitlin over for a play of course.

We've just had dinner on the front deck and I'm sitting out here finishing my post and being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Life is good. No, really, it's all worth it!

We're all going on a summer holiday...

*no more working for a week day or two*

My mum used to sing that as we headed off on our many camping holidays way back when. It just popped into my head now as I was playing around with the phrase "we're off on a holiday" trying to make it sound vaguely interesting. I shall have to remember to annoy the kids with it tomorrow afternoon on our way south. They find it disturbing when I start serenading them with the songs my parents used to sing. There's "Daddy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow" (obvious application here), "It's a long way to Tipperary" (good for use in response to "Are we there yet?"), "I can see the seaside" (for stating the bleeding obvious), "Country Road" (for when traveling on said type of road) and "Cloudy" (for grey weather, of course) among others.

Ah, the good old days when we didn't even have so much as a tape player in the car, relied on 4x80 aircon (4 windows open traveling at 80km...what's that? the speed limit is 100 here? don't be silly, the car won't do that on a road like this), taking the scenic route (Alright, next time we'll take the front of the convoy and the others can breathe our dust...). You really knew you were traveling then, none of this sitting in climate controlled comfort watching DVDs and playing DS games....

DEAR GOD THANKYOU for modern conveniences!!!!! We'll be driving to Yass tomorrow afternoon and then on to the Mornington Peninsula on Friday, with any luck we might even arrive sane. Then we're driving back again on Monday. Which clearly negates any claim to sanity right there and then. Why are we doing this? It's the Browncoats of course, another Big Damn Meet - BDooM! So I'll be back on blog Monday night, unless I can get my mobile blogging thing working - don't hold your breath on that one though.

Now, I should probably start packing....

We've been busy

Saturday's project was the gingerbread house, I baked the gingerbread on Friday night, then assembled it and let the kids loose on it in the morning. They were very thorough...


My mum had come over to spend some time with us and she got quite caught up in the creative process too, I think those rows of smarties along the edge of the roof are down to her :)

After doing some cooking for the next day's picnic we headed into the city to meet up with Jenni (ChingTing) and Kat (Ninox), SOz members who were up from Canberra. We went to the IMAX theater and saw Sea Monsters 3D, we'd never done IMAX before and the kids loved it, Tom in particular, he's been trying to persuade us to go back and see the dinosaur one since the moment we came out of the theatre. We then had dinner in Chinatown at the Golden Century Seafood Restaurant, food was very nice if a little overpriced, and by the end of the meal the kids were well and truly past it but on the whole it was a good night.

Today was a picnic brunch at Balmoral - Christmas get together for my side of the family - which went really well, the weather was lovely, the kids had a great time, we ate yummy food and we came home with a Wollemi Pine (present from my brother's family).

Our favourite spot, the tree-cave.

Caitlin collecting water for construction purposes and Tom in seventh heaven - he was in the water for most of the day, he had to be coerced into coming out long enough to eat at about 1pm and he hadn't even had any breakfast.

When we haven't been doing family or Christmassy stuff we've been hitting the beading and leather working - who needs sleep? Crafting is a much more worthwhile use of time :P

Earrings for the therapists at the anxiety clinic

Necklace and earring set

Adam made two of these bags for our youngest nieces for Christmas, they were a big hit.

This one is a drinking horn holder which goes on your belt, there's another one still in production.

Tomorrow I'm making yet more fruit mince pies, which will bring my total for this year to 144. Buggered if I know where they're going, I'm certainly not eating them! (Well, not many of them any way) David very gratifyingly tells everyone that mum's pies are the best...hmmmm, maybe I should be keeping an eye on him....

Now for that sleep!

Left-overs? What left-overs?!

I'd been telling people all week that I was expecting around 50 people to come to our Christmas party last night and that half of them would be kids. I'm pretty sure that those figures were right back at the beginning of the week. But then I kept telling other people "Hey, we're having a party! You should come along!" And they all did. I'd catered based on my original numbers so it's a bloody good thing that I and all my fellow Browncoats are chronic over- caterers because according to my calculations this morning we in fact had 75 people come to the party (46 adults and 29 kids). I'm pretty sure no-one went hungry or thirsty but it may have been a bit of a close call.

Anyway, the food was good, the drink flowed freely (it'll do that when you tip your almost full 500mL stein over on the table - and it was my first drink of the night! - at least there was nothing else on the table at that stage), and the company was brilliant :) The kids were remarkably well behaved, they all seemed to enjoy Santa coming to visit - Adam is getting quite good in the role I must say - and they pretty much looked after themselves for most of the evening. Even the weather behaved for us, one lovely sunny day sandwiched in between grey and rainy days - god knows what I'd have done with 75 people if we hadn't been able to use the outdoor space!

And yes, I'm totally planning on doing it all again next year :)

Fans4writers

Fellow Browncoat JenskiJen is on holidays in the US...sort of. While she was in LA, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. And Jen, being Jen, volunteered to help out the fandom support campaign. The full story is on her LJ but to save you the trouble of an extra click you can read it all here ;-)

Writers on Strike - Fans4Writers Campaign
You would think that when I travel all the way from Australia to the US to go on a holiday, I'd just relax and have fun, right? Um... well, see... while I was in LA, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. And I kinda volunteered to help out the fandom support campaign. And boy, has it steamrolled!

If you don't know about the strike, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk

In response to the strike, we have formed Fans4Writers.

Fans4Writers is a movement born from fans of Joss Whedon, at WHEDONesque.com. As supporters of the people behind the scenes, who develop and write the stories that have meant so much to so many, we wanted to do something tangible to show them that we support the Writers Guild of America strike.

Our first foray out to the picket lines was to deliver pizza to the writers at Universal Studios, to feed the bodies that have fed our minds. You can read about it at http://whedonesque.com/ws/

It quickly became clear and necessary for the effort to encompass more than a single fandom. As such, Fans4Writers is not just for Whedon fans. It is not just for "genre" fans or television fans. This effort belongs to fans of ALL striking writers.

So, what are we doing?

The fans4writers.com site is currently being fine tuned, and will have all the details of our campaign, as well as resources to educate and spread the word.

What kind of things will the campaign include?

DIRECT SUPPORT

Through our "Food for Thought" program, we will organize and facilitate the delivery of provisions to writers on the picket lines. In addition, fans will gather to join their favorite writers on the picket lines.

MORAL SUPPORT

Through a planned ad in Variety or other major outlet, we will tell the industry -- and the public -- in no uncertain terms that we support the writers' right to a fair deal.

LONG-TERM SUPPORT

Should the strike be of any significant duration, we will contribute to the Guild's strike funds to assist affected writers.

FOUNDATION SUPPORT

At the conclusion of the strike, any remaining funds will be donated to the Writers Guild Foundation to support its charitable and educational activities.

While the studios might not be prepared to value the writers highly enough to offer them a fair deal, the fans will commit themselves, their time, their energy, and their money to show just how highly WE value them. For as long as the strike lasts.

Our message is simple - "Don't write until it's right."

WHAT CAN I DO TO BE INVOLVED?

Check out fans4writers.com (currently under construction). In addition to the details of the "Food for Thought" and other campaigns, we will inclulde many ways that you can help, from boycotts to postcard campaigns, and much more. We have a Paypal link set up should you wish to donate.

Spread the word about the campaign!

We want to be able to support all writers, but we understand that some fandoms would prefer to take the lead themselves. With this in mind, we are structuring our fan support campaign in such a way that individual fandoms can use the formula and conduct their own campaigns. We would ask that each fandom who chooses to do this select a campaign head, and liaise with us. This way, all writers will be supported, and no picket line is neglected.

If you would like to volunteer to help us deliver "Food for Thought" to the picket lines in Los Angeles or New York City, please email us at fans4writers@gmail.com, and leave your contact details (including phone number and availability).

If you would like to become involved and organise an affiliate campaign, please have the campaign head contact us, so that we can support each other.

Remember, without the writers, there would be no fandoms. And without us, there would be no studios.

Yours in solidarity,

Fans4Writers.com

Email: fans4writers@gmail.com
LiveJournal: http://community.livejournal.com/wga_supporters/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19177889752
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/fans4writers

Public holiday = BBQ party!

Friday was a no-blog day because I spent the morning frantically cleaning up and shopping, as one does, in preparation for having close on 20 people, mostly Browncoats, over for a BBQ in the afternoon and evening. Everyone who came brought with them vast quantities of gorgeous and for the most part healthy food and despite my original intentions to track points come hell or high water, I caved and just stopped worrying about it. There were vegan cupcakes cooked by Susan, vegan slices, salads and NOT-meatballs invented and cooked by the very talented ZB, Crusty Meatloaf & Lecso (capsicum and sun-dried tomato thing) courtesy of ozfinn, kebabs from Dana, vegetable lasagne and mint-slice from jacqfly, tuna slice from buffiness, and much more. We ate, drank, talked and then did it all some more, it was an awesome afternoon and night, despite the rain, and the food was delicious...so I wouldn't let anyone leave without taking their leftovers with them LOL I even made a couple of them come back when they'd almost made it to their cars and take away Pringles and Kettle chips that they left behind!

Adam is off doing a 2 day sailing course this weekend so I'm home with the kids with nothing planned. Today I've sorted through both the boys' and Caitlin's wardrobes getting rid of the stuff that doesn't fit any more and working out what we need to get for summer. If I'm feeling enthusiastic tomorrow we'll go clothes and shoe shopping for all.

Just before lunch today I managed to muster up the energy to go outside and throw a ball around on the cul-de-sac with the kids, which is something I almost never do. It was so unusual that my eldest asked if we could please do it again sometime. This made me feel simultaneously sad that I haven't done it more often and happy that I'm starting to now. I was thinking about it, and realised that, being the selfish creature that I am, and not really being particularly fond of very young children the reason I haven't done much of that kind of playing is that I simply haven't enjoyed it before. But this was genuinely fun for all of us. I reckon I'm really going to enjoy the next few years...and then along will come adolescence - eeep!

One more day of this first Wacky Weekly Challenge to go so tomorrow will be the last food diary I'll be blogging, next week is exercise! Here's the damage for yesterday and today:

WWC Wk1 Day5
Breakfast
weetbix, milk and peaches - 3pts
Lunch
Tom yum soup and a mountain bread banana wrap - 6pts
Dinner
Let's see, there was orange and fig slice, chocolate cherry slice, raspberry coconut slice, peanut butter cupcake, mexican chili chocolate cupcake, marinated mushroom salad, citrus coleslaw, tofu-tahini-walnut-olive balls with tomato sauce, garden salad, lecso, a low-fat sausage, lamb capsicum and mushroom kebabs, vegetable lasagne, mint slice, king island brie and water crackers, fruit salad, a small glass of mead, many cups of tea...and ONE corn chip. And I have absolutely no idea how many points were involved but I'd go with LOTS as a good guess and it was worth every single one of them!
Water
3x750ml, I think
Exercise
frantic cleaning of house for 2 hours

Total for the day: 9 + LOTS = buggered if I know!


WWC Wk1 Day6
Breakfast
weetbix, milk and peaches - 3pts
Lunch
2 sushi rolls, a few hot chips stolen from Caitlin and pumpkin & cauliflower soup - 6.5pts
Dinner
Barrumundi pan fried in a little olive oil with garlic, dill and lemon, left-over garden salad with low fat caesar dressing, left-over low fat sausage with tomato sauce on a slice of bread - 11.5pts
Snacks
milk for tea - 0.5pt
apple - 1pt
pumpkin & cauliflower soup - 0.5pt
Water
3x750ml
Exercise
Played ball on the cul-de-sac with the kids for 30 minutes

Total for the day: 23

WWC Wk1 Day2

Breakfast
Large skinny cappuccino - 2pts
Lunch
Greek salad, pasta & sundried tomato salad and fruit salad - 12.5pts
Dinner
Chicken and vegetable mango curry with rice, 1 pappadum, mango chutney, yoghurt for dessert - 12pts
Snacks
milk for tea - 0.5pts
Water
4x750ml
Exercise
Nil

Total for the day: 26

Bit of a lop-sided day, I'm in the very bad habit of going to my meeting on an empty tummy which tends to do weird things to my eating for the rest of the day. The pasta salad I bought for lunch turned out to be much oilier than it seemed in the display and my points guesstimation had me wondering whether I was going to be able to afford dinner but I worked out what my planned meal would be points-wise and realised I would scrape in just fine provided there was no snacking. So I drank lots of water all afternoon instead!

I really need to save some points over the next 2 days as we're hosting a Browncoats shindig on Friday and I'm toying with the possibility of joining them for a day trip to Canberra on Saturday to visit Koko Black - talk about testing my resolve....eeep.