Oct 14 - Back On The Wagon Again

  I got up at 11:30am today, underwent the usual morning ablutions, and I weighed myself to assess the damage of the last week.  I tested the scales first.  I got them to successfully measure 4kg as 4kg so I felt comfortable that I'd be able to accept my reading.  It came up as 109.9 kg which is actually a loss of 0.8 kg since September 28!  That's not as much of a loss compared with previous performance, but given how bad my eating has been I'm pretty stoked with that.

  Because I got up so late today I skipped breakfast and went straight on to lunch.  After mucking about on the computer, showering and dressing, I made myself a Mission Wholegrain Wrap spread with about 30g of Yumi's Hummus then topped with a 95g tin of Sole Mare Tuna in Olive Oil (drained), a whole carrot peeled into strips and two large iceberg lettuce leaves.  After that I also had two dried peach halves and 4 Brazil nuts.

  I've had a relatively lazy day but I feel prepared for the week ahead.  I completed weekly planner and got a head start on the following week as well.  On this one I've started highlighting the potential 'hot spots' in red so that I can see them coming and prepare more.  I'm also going to have a picture copy of the planner on my screen background at work.  A couple of people have asked for and been sent my planner template.  If anyone else wants it, please just ask, I'm happy to email it.

  I also did a load of laundry and when I went to hang it out I noticed a whole bunch of bees buzzing about my barbecue and going in and out of a hole in the plastic cover.  I suspect I don't want to know what's going on under there, but it did prompt me to go and set up my new toy so I could play with it.  So today I learned to put a lens on a camera body and muck about with focal length.  I just have the one lens, an EFS 18-55mm which should allow me to photograph most of my desired subjects.
  Unfortunately none of my shots of the bees came out very well.  I have some beautifully crisp shots of the hole in the barbecue cover but regrettably bees seem reluctant to pose and the buzzing, flying nature of the little beasts makes them come out all blurry.  I expect I will eventually work out how to compensate for this if they stick around long enough.  Of course now, finding myself equipped with a camera in macro mode, I remembered a couple of other things I'd been wanting to get a better shot of.
Exhibit A: My beautiful rose bush is under attack!

  I am the first to admit that I am not much of a gardener.  I appreciate the intricate beauties of nature and I often find myself in awe of its complexities, but I did not inherit my Granny's green thumbs.  My rose bush is on its own.  I'm of the same opinion when it comes to the weird gourd insects co-existing with my lemon tree.  If the plant is strong enough to survive, it will survive.  The lemon tree has survived a decade or more with no ill effects, it still produces a ridiculous surplus of comically large lemons.  The rose bush has for the same time, grown out of a crack in the concrete, so I'm going to trust that it knows what it's doing.  Also it's actually quite interesting to watch aphids work, especially if you catch sight of ants milking them!
  I didn't have an afternoon snack today so I got hungry quite early in the evening.  Due to the lack of planning in this rather draining week there was nothing readily available to cook and I didn't much feel like going to the shops.  After a small deliberation I decided to have a 300g Lean Cuisine Balanced Serve Creamy Salmon & Dill Pasta.  It's a no effort meal and it's not the prettiest thing to look at but it's calorie controlled and comforting.  I followed it up with half a 50g serve of belVita Fruit & Fibre Breakfast biscuits (2) and two more dried peach halves for dessert.
  The rest of my evening has passed pretty swiftly.  I had a couple of long phone calls catching up with Earnest and then Chook and I whiled away the rest of the time doing some research which will come in handy later in the year.  I was originally planning to make a cake for a birthday at work tomorrow but that hasn't ended up happening so I will just have to buy one instead.  It's probably a good thing I didn't make one, licking the bowl afterwards would've been almost irresistible!
  Here's hoping that the week is a productive one for all of us.
  Jess