Holidays

Can't believe that I have been at my full time job for 12 months.  It really does seem like yesterday when I started.  I am on annual leave at the moment, all 38 blissful days.....I decided not to go away this year, so 5.5 weeks at home is quite challenging but I have managed to fill in the first 3 weeks quite easily.

Cooking, cleaning, knitting, coffee with friends, dinner with friends, catching up with family both in the country and by the sea, going to see my football team play, exercising, sleeping.....lots and lots of sleeping, shopping.....lots of shopping, pattern writing and just generally enjoying not working.

I've put together a whole bunch of photos I've taken whilst on hols, some on my DSLR, some on my phone, some snatched from my Instagram account, some snatched from others on Facebook.....thank you Lamb Loves Fox and thank you Kris.

And if you are waiting patiently for Purdey pattern to come along.....your wait is going to be a little longer.  Kris who does all my desk top publishing for all of my patterns, had an early arrival.  Welcome to the world Pippa Mae.  Purdey has been put back till Kris is ready, and I think this little bundle of gorgeousness is a valid excuse, don't you?

Victoria x

2014 The Year That Sort of Was!!

I looked back to the post I did here.  It had some NY resolutions or sort of resolutions.  Thought I should review those and see how I went.

1. No more Not so many yarn purchases. (sort of did ok, but if I had to be honest....I failed)
2. Pilates twice a week. (started off doing it at home once a week and by the time I started in my new job.....all went out the window....fail)
3. Buy that damn bicycle I've been wanting to buy before Summer finishes. (In my quest to save money I am renovating my current bicycle)
4. Lose that last 10 or so kilos.....I managed to get 6.5 off before Christmas, so I'd like to have the remaining 10 off by December....slow and steady. (didn't lose but didn't gain....so that's a win in my book)
5. Finally learn to run and enjoy it.....Couch to 5K, here I come. (Yep can do that, although an Achilles injury in October has put a stop to any running for the time being so it's back to walking)
6. Finish all the woolly works in progress before I start any more. (Big Fail)
7. Have at least 4 more knitted patterns completed before end of year. (Fail, although I have 2 scheduled for the end of January, so almost there....sort of!)
8. Save more money. (Yep, earning more allows you to save more....and I've managed to set up some saving schemes/extra superannuation for my retirement, thanks to my accountant, so that's a win)
9. Don't waste so much food. (Not sure about this, but I know I haven't been eating as much!!)
10. Comment more on other peoples blogs, facebook pages and the like....I know it makes me so happy when someone leaves me a comment, so I'm going to make sure I do it more to others this year.(I started off well, but once I got into the swing of my new job in May.....Fail)
11. Smile randomly at someone in the street everyday. (This one wasn't hard, I just smiled randomly at passengers on my tram.....you smile at someone they'll smile right back, even if it is a half hearted smile)
12. Be HAPPY! (I think I ended up the year a lot happier than I started out, although some people do question this as I'm not one of those people that is outwardly smiling all of the time, more introvert, than extrovert  I've made some new friends, met some wonderful people at my work who make me laugh  on a daily basis, and yeah I'm really looking forward to 2015).

All up I've had a good year.....I love my job.  I was out for dinner with one of my new found friends last week just before Christmas, and I said to him that I never thought I would find a job that I love, and I do like driving trams......who knew!!  It's so nice to go to work every day knowing that you like what you do.....I had a week off before Christmas, and by the end of the 8 days off, I was looking forward to going back to work....so that says something.

I guess the only thing that has disappointed me a little is the neglect of dover & madden so to speak.  My time is now spent focusing on my full time job, it does take a lot of my time....I'm at work for at least 9 hours every day, or 5/6 days a week, and I'm pretty much exhausted still, both physically and mentally when I get home, so d&m stuff now gets left or ignored a lot....although I am pattern writing and it does look as if my next pattern(s) will be out by the end of January.

Anyway I'm off to work now, I guess for the first time in a few years I'll be out on NYE albeit working.  I'll leave you with some of my favourite images from this year.

Happy New Year to you all, may 2015 be everything you wish it to be.

Be happy, be healthy and most of all be kind.


Vicki x

Popping In.....

Thought I'd drop by and let you know I'm still here......Quite sick with a shocking cold that I can't seem to shake off, but still here.

I've been bunkering down at home the majority of the time with chicken soup and good wholesome hearty food to try and beat this dreaded lurgy.....10 days I've had it for now, and it is showing no signs of leaving!!

I have zip, zilch, zero news of any type so I've just popped up a pretty picture of some knit wear I was packing away to keep nice and clean.....don't you just love, texture and colour, so much love and satisfaction in that little pile of knits I can't tell you.

Anyway I'll be on my way, I've a medical appointment of a different type today, the one where they clamp part of your body in a vice like grip and x-ray.....it's an annual checkup based on family history......always makes me a little anxious though.

Oh and I went and saw The Grand Budapest Hotel last night.....I've heard so many people raving about it, I think I missed the memo, I just fidgeted, looked at my watch and did lots of mind wandering until it was over........But I saw All is Lost last week......bloody brilliant, although I knew there was a reason I hated boats!!

Anyway I'm looking forward to the Easter Break.  For some reason Easter is my favourite holiday, I think it stems from happy holidays as a child.....Happy memories.

Anyway that's it, I'm out of here!!

Enjoy, Vx

Positivity....

I've never been the most positive person I have to say....I'm the glass half empty type of person.  I worry about what will happen before it does, and I do always think of the worst possible scenario......a trait I picked up from my Mother....she still wears that hat well, I try my best to leave that hat off.....I do really try!

I applied for a job a few weeks ago, I won't go into it, but I wanted this job so much.  These positions don't come up that often.  It offers job security and in this day and age....that's a plus.  It comes with a very decent wage, although hours and shift work make up some of that decent wage.....but hey that doesn't bother me so much.  Being on the wrong side of 40 I knew this job was earmarked for me as my choices are sort of becoming limited.....Anyway I had my interview and I've got through 4 phases of testing and I'm just waiting to hear the final outcome, but it looks very positive, and I've been told to sit and wait for an email advising me of the next step.

There you have it, I thought positive thoughts, I wished and wished and I believe my little ducks all lined up in a row!!

I'll keep you posted as it may have some big repercussions for my little knitting world.

So for now I just sit and wait and knit and bask in the last warm days of  Summer. 




Vic x

What Started Out As A Normal Day........

I spent yesterday afternoon though to 10.30pm in the emergency short stay unit at the Alfred Hospital.  What started off as a normal day ended in a bit of drama I guess you'd call it.....well if it is my life it's always a bit of drama.

I left for work as normal at 1.30pm, sat down in my car to put the keys in the ignition and the most unimaginable pain struck across the right side of my chest, so sharp I could feel it right through to my back and radiating through my right shoulder and blade.....the pain was so sudden and so intense that it took my breath away....It felt like a sledgehammer had just been swung at me and completely winded me.....I sat there for around 3 minutes trying to work out what it was....don't ask me why I sat there I just did.

The pain did subside and my breathing did return to some sort of normal, so I decided to continue my journey to work....I drove around 3 kilometres down the road, and something made me turn back and go home to my GP.  My GP is located 4 doors down from my apartment block.....so turning up there to find a note on his door that he has had to shut the surgery due to ill health certainly wasn't what I was expecting.  Big hello and hope you're ok to Dr O'Bryan.

With a thumping pain still in my chest, albeit not as severe as it was, I instinctively thought emergency at The Alfred.....a short 3 minute drive from my place......I did think about calling an ambulance, but I'm part of the statistics that show  a woman will call an ambulance for someone else, but highly unlikely she'll call one for herself....that's me.....and I just didn't want all the fuss!!

Chest pain seems to get some sort of priority at the emergency section but after being looked over by a admissions nurse, she seemed to be satisfied, that I wasn't having a heart attack and I could take my turn in the wait queue like everyone else......If I don't end up with some sort of cold, flu, bronchitis from being coughed over by every down and out that came in on an ambulance stretcher and was left in the corridor,  I'll be very lucky....They do generally say you go into hospital with one thing but come out with something else!!

Anyway after being hooked up to ECG.....and let me tell you at least I had brand new knickers on.....phew, because your modesty just goes out the window, and blood taken, and my blood pressure reading taken every 30 minutes and one of those little nitroglycerin tablets that goes under your tongue to dilate your heart arteries, with the side effect headache that goes with it!! and one of those dinky little pulse readers on my fingers and several chest x-rays, I settled in for a stay of 8 hours.

Not the most relaxing 8 hours I've spent, and several times I cursed myself that I hadn't brought my knitting or a book with me, although the comings and goings of a hospital are quite entertaining to say the least.

Anyway the outcome of all of this is that there is nothing wrong with my heart....albeit slightly elevated blood pressure readings and a slightly excessive beating heart....put down to the stress of the situation and the fact that I was still in some sort of discomfort with pain but nothing that they thought was of any worry....But something that they did find in my blood work results is the possibility of a blood clot in my leg and my lungs.....not uncommon in itself, but not something they would expect for a person of my age.  Normally these sort of irregularities will show up in people that are bed bound, immobile, pregnant, recovering from surgery of a hip or knee replacement....not a normal mobile, active person that I consider myself to be.

So basically if one of my leg swells, and not the normal swelling of both feet from say the heat, but we are talking one leg, painful, red skin surrounding the swelling and or shortness of breath.....I do need to call an ambulance....the possibility of a pulmonary embolism is real.  As the blood test only came back with a minor abnormality they've sent me back to my GP to deal with this so fingers crossed, it's not a huge deal, although anything to do with your health I guess no matter how big or small is a huge deal.

Funnily enough something I will need to discuss with a GP, I'm now on the hunt for a new one.... Having had blood tests prior to starting dover & madden for other matters and nothing like this showing up in my blood work results, and now working dover & madden where I can sit down knitting for long periods of time, I'm interested to know if all this sitting has caused this or it is just something that is in my make up and it's entirely coincidental.....It's got me thinking, because there are often long days of work, where I do end up with quite swollen feet after a day of sitting down working.....food for thought and possibly a little worrying for me.....and it's not like I sit there all day, up, down, to the kitchen, to the computer etc etc.

Anyway that was my day, not the way I expected it to end, but I'm at home today, it's amazing how tired you feel after spending the day at a hospital, either as a patient or just visiting.   I also guess that some things happen for a reason, they have no explanation as to my chest pain other that they believe it was muscular and it will just clear itself, but it did bring to light a potential serious situation elsewhere, so in that sense it wasn't really a wasted day!!


Now to find that new doctor.

I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Vic x

Weight. Now There is More!!

If you've been hanging around here for a little while, you may remember this post.  It was back in mid January.....Things started ok, then February came along and so did a kilo or two extra.  I just seemed to lose my way.

I'm normally a relatively healthy eater, but a massive addiction to sugar just wouldn't go away.  I don't know where it came from or why, but a day didn't pass without chocolate, biscuits, a cake of some description....these goodies are ok as a treat, but not something that should be an everyday occurrence in my opinion.

The results of all of this have been some more extra kilos....skin that has broken out in spots, that even SKII had problems dealing with (this stuff usually has my skin glowing...but even this face cream gave up!!) overwhelming tiredness, and unexplained aches and pains and a return of sciatica, that I know is weight related.

A serious call to action was required as I really feel heading into my 45th year, if I don't get all of this under control now, I never will.  I don't like feeling like this, and I hate looking like this.  I'm really not making the best of what I have.  I know I've looked a million times better than I do now.  I've lost interest in going out, other than with my close friends....I have a wardrobe of beautiful clothes but I'm living my life in a stretchy skirt and an up-sized pair of trousers that I had to purchase because none of my others fit.... a few tops that don't require buttoning up over my boobs, that have also gone up a size and half!  And now half the time I don't even bother with makeup anymore because I figure what is the point.

The penny has now dropped, I caught sight of myself in a window the other day and didn't recognise the person staring back at me, then I read Tammi's blog at Little Poppa.  It was then that I knew that I had to make a serious effort before any serious health problems kicked in...my Dad died around 6 years ago from a heart attack, his sister also had a heart attack, she luckily survived, so I want to try and avoid that myself.  I also knew this time I needed a bit of help.  As much as I like to think I can work these things out myself,  this time I've enlisted the help of Weight Watchers.  I know these sort of programs aren't for everyone, and I have gone to WW in the past with moderate success, but the thought of sitting in those meetings with others, discussing low fat Philly cream cheese and how many points in a Ryvita just drove me away in the end.

Weight Watchers Australia now have set up shop in selected department stores across the country.  I am paying a slight premium to have a one on one meeting each week with a consultant to discuss MY eating issues and not have to listen to others.  I don't have to suffer the indignity of a possible weight gain in front of others, and the new program seems to be more aimed at healthier options and choices rather than the fact that the old program had the same points value for a biscuit and a banana....and I know what most people would prefer and it ain't the banana!!

My first day on this program was yesterday....I'm using a diary to record my food intake, I've also paid 13 visits in advance so I'm committed to this 100%.  I will be sharing my results here each week after my weigh in just because I think it's another way for me to keep it honest and real, and maybe there are others that are happy to join in, or share their stories. 

This is not all about the food either, it's also about the exercise and they go hand in hand in my opinion.  I've started to park my car about 25 minutes away from my work place....I then walk the remaining distance into work and back, so that's around 45 to 50 minutes of walking a day, normally carrying a bag of groceries.

I'm going back to Pilates....great for building long lean muscle and also I need to strengthen my core to help sort out the sciatica.  I started Pilates around 6 years ago and was going twice a week back then, it made an amazing difference to my shape and funnily enough my height due to the fact that your posture changes.....I haven't been in around 2 years so it's going to be a very sore couple of weeks whilst my muscles go into some sort of shock before settling back down.

Here is my first page of my diary....I did fill it out slightly wrong (note to self, read the fill in instruction first) but it certainly worked writing out what I ate, knowing how much more I could eat, and then funnily enough realising I was completely satisfied at the end of the day and didn't feel like I needed to go hunting for a snack after dinner last night.

I'm not going to reveal my weight, I might do that at the end of the journey, but I will reveal my height. I'm quite tall at 175cm or 5ft 9...so I do tend to carry more weight and being tall it's more evenly spread is probably the way I'd say it.

Well I've been eating my breakfast whilst typing this blog.....1 slice of grainy toast with organic peanut butter and a banana smoothie, hopefully that should keep me going till lunchtime....I'm off to do some knitting before heading out for a walk. 


Enjoy your day

vicki x

Day 27....Something I Ate.

Lunch today.....I'm home from work due to car problems, and a case of getting soaked by torrential rain whilst attempting to get to work with no car....but that is a whole other story. 

So lunch....chick peas, white beans, radish, celery, beans, avocado and a can of Italian tuna in olive oil....all mixed together.....and a touch of lemon juice....it may not look much but it was delicious.

#febphotoaday


vicki

Day 24....Inside My Bathroom Cabinet

I love to indulge in good skincare....if it's good enough for Cate, then it's good enough for me.  My bathroom cabinet stocked with SKII goodies....best thing I did for my skin was changing over to this treatment....expensive but worth every cent.  Amongst other goodies...I spread my skincare across, The Body Shop, Aesop and Proactiv....and I have a stash of Chanel perfume up the back, No 19, No 5 and Coco...makeup it's Laura Mercier and Clinique.....and I didn't photograph the bottom of the cabinet, because toothpaste, deodorant and shower gel aren't really that exciting!!

#febphotoaday.

vicki x

Day 6.......Dinner

Dinner....well late lunch or early dinner, whatever!!  Rye Toast, hommus, avocado, wild rocket and tomato.

St Kilda, Melbourne.  Taken at 5.34pm.

#febphotoaday.

Vicki

You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato.....

At the moment I'm not feeling the best, I have shocking withdrawals from giving up caffeine, sugar, dairy etc etc I feel like rubbish, but short term pain for long term gain....fingers crossed.

So for lunch I felt like I really needed something yummy, colourful and flavoursome that was going to hit the spot....and it did.

This tomato salad is my go to salad all the time....I vary it a little depending what is in the fridge, but the basis of tomatoes, chickpeas and red onion never changes.  I just took 4 to 5 of four different types of cherry tomatoes, red, yellow, orange and the slightly purplish ones....aren't they pretty.

Chop them all in half and throw them into a large bowl with a medium size tin of rinsed chick peas, two sticks of chopped celery and half a red onion diced.

 

Into that I add around 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of half to1 full lemon depending on taste.  A half teaspoon of sumac which should be available at all supermarkets, salt and pepper to taste....mix it all together and then taste it just to see if it needs a little more salt, or lemon....depending on what you like.  This salad is best made half a day ahead as it allows the flavours to develop and remember that tomatoes always taste best at room temp, so I always pull this salad out of the fridge half an hour before serving....and lunch is served.....with a little poached chicken fillet and a huge glass of water to try and dilute my headache!


Enjoy

Vicki

Day 5......10am

10am......heading back to bed, feeling unwell.

St Kilda, Melbourne.  Taken at  9.51am as I intend to be back in bed by 10am or thereabouts.

#febphotoaday.

The Land of Nod....

At the moment I feel like I'm in a constant daze of tiredness....getting up earlier, working longer hours at my full time job, and getting home later is wearing thin.....what I really want to be doing is this.

But I tend to be doing more of this....

So whilst I get myself such much needed sleep this week and try and knock this tiredness on the head, there will be no blog for the remainder of the week. I want to do a couple of hours of knitting each night and try getting to bed a little earlier than the midnight it normally is.

I'm also going to try and get myself a bit more organised before I go to bed, such as find something to wear the night before and iron it so it's ready to put on, make my lunch and have my bag packed and ready at the back door......and hopefully this better organisation should give me an extra hour in bed in the morning....so if I can catch some extra zzzzz's it might be all the difference I need.


Enjoy your week everyone, and see you next weekend.

vicki x

Weight, There's More......

There is a bit more of me this year than there was last year....It's that time of year where some of us have to do a bit of re-assessing....and I'm no different.  I didn't expect to be starting 2012 off the same as I started 2011.....battling the bulge....slight exaggeration, but left unchecked it could be!!

I've always struggled with my weight....I am an emotional eater, and an over eater, but after losing around 27 kilos (around 60 pounds) around 16 years ago, I've always managed to keep my weight in check....I would always pull it back if I knew it was getting a little bit too far right on the scale. I'm happy to exercise....I can walk and walk and walk, and that's my exercise of choice, with pilates thrown in once a week....but after losing 7 kilos at the start of last year to get my weight back to where it should be, I decided to step it up and take up running....after one week I ended up with a condition called plantar fasciitis.  This put an end to any walking or running after March, so for 9 months I've sat on my backside making it bigger.

So my foots taken 9 months to fix, I'm back to a situation where I can once again exercise yet we are also back to a situation like this.......

Not a great look is it.....so the next time I take this photo there really should be less of  me......50 minutes of walking a day, no processed food (not that I really eat processed food anyway, but my addiction to Kettle Chips is a problem) and everything else in moderation.

Wish me luck, I'm going the long and steady route, not the quick fix, it took 9 months to get this way, so I figure it could take just as long to get it off.


Enjoy Day 11
Vicki