Thursday 19 January 2017

Day 19, 2017

Beautiful day today, sunny, warm, nice breeze. Headed to Geelong for work, always a pleasure there. Finished up at Moonee Ponds and then back to the inlaws for FIL's "actual bday" dinner. Had fun playtime with Turtle out in the paddock. She had her favourite pillow with her again. So cute that she's clingy to it. Helped at bed time tonight too. It seemed as though she was comfortable not having one of us sticking around. This is good! Not much else today. All up, it was a good one.

Morning Weight: N/A
Exercise: N/A
General Health: woke up super stuffed up in the nose, cleared with the shower steam, still bloated guts though.

Food & Drink:
Breakfast: 1 cup cereal + soy milk
Lunch: HJ Grilled Chicken + fat chips
Dinner: roast chicken + veg + chips
Water: 1500ml
Coffee: 2*Small Latte
Other: Pav, fruit/nut muesli bar, 4 dumplings, 20* corn chips(gf)

Wednesday 18 January 2017

Day 18, 2017

Morning Weight: 74.5kg
Exercise: N/A
General Health: Guts: 82cm, bloated, discomfort.

Food & Drink:
Breakfast: 1 cup cereal + soy milk
Lunch: lasagna (gf) + garden salad
Dinner: Grilled salmon, brown rice, kidney bean salad
Water: 2000ml
Coffee: 2* small soy Latte
Other: Fruit nut mueseli bar, Cherry Ripe slice (gf)

Tuesday 17 January 2017

Day 17, 2017

Morning Weight: N/A
Exercise: N/A
General Health:
Guts: 82cm, bloated, discomfort, mild pain, tired, mildly disorientated

Food & Drink:
Breakfast: 1 cup cereal + soy milk
Lunch: Grilled salmon, brown rice, garden salad
Dinner: Tepanyaki
Water: 500ml
Coffee: 1* small soy Latte
Other: Snickers

Day 14, 2017

Today was a good one, after a crappy sleep. Turdle's been a little off on her sleep of late. Not sure what's changed but it sucks for all.

Sleep or no sleep, we still headed out for a day at Adventure Park down Geelong way with our visiting family. It was way too chilly for water play but we had pre-purchased the tickets so away we went. Turtle was mostly happy, even though she was ready to nap most of the time. She went on the mini rollercoaster with wifey, super slow electric race cars with me and then chill break before trying out the bouncing pillow - which she just laid on with her bottle while the other kids bounced her around. Headed back to the bags and let her take the lead on what to do next. Of course, in 20 degree weather it was water related!

Funny stuff here, she wanted to touch and play with the water but kept pushing me away towards it to do it for her. I'd run back after doing so with a little scream and laugh. She loved it.

After an early lunch, tried our luck in the actual kids water play area, with pretty much the exact same result. We'd been trying to get her to sleep off and on for most of the morning without any luck. Too much going on around. So, she was super wrecked by now and just needed to sleep. Decided to head home but with one last ride, on the ferris wheel. She loved it enough to finally get a poop out too. We had to evacuate the ride, lucky it was our last rotation.

Just over an hour drive home and Turtle fell asleep about 15 mins into it (next to her Pa). She slept for 45 mins then another few hours in bed at home. I should have done the same but wasn't ready for it so I caught up on a few of my own things around the house.

Out to dinner for Pa's bday that night. I had a Hawaiian Parma. Not bad at all. Turtle was a bit restless again. Took her home for a trampoline bounce to let off some steam and then back to Nanna and Pa's house for cake. It was pretty late by the time we made it home so Turtle didn't sleep until around 11pm. In theory, that would mean she'd sleep til about 9am. But nooooooo.. 7:30pm rise and shine. Still better than the 5:30-6am it's been of late.

Monday 16 January 2017

Day 16, 2017 - "Here's to Everything that Matters: Starting with Me"

It's easy to forget that at any given time everyone is facing a challenge of some sort. Too often are we caught up in the day's happenings, and remain focused on the outcome or our own agenda where as the person in front of you might need a bit of a break. For example, the stupid bitch that decided to road rage me when I was looking for a car park this morning. Even if I had have been going slow (which I wasn't), I pulled over to let her pass and she proceeded to yell abuses and honk at me. Anyway, I proceeded to teach her a lesson but decided not to waste what little energy I have on her. Plus, I have a doctor's appointment now.

Fast forward to the end of my appointment... Reception lady decided to be nosey, go through all my paperwork and probe as to why I'm getting the exam done. She wasnt making small-talk and already had the answers she "needed". Their EFTPOS machine was broken too, so she proceeded to politely threaten me with debt collectors if I didn't come back by Friday. Wow. She received a blank stare followed by a comment highlighting her broken machine. I might pay by cheque or 5 cent pieces. No! Be thoughtful! ^^^
It will be my last visit to this practice. Returning to the one in the town we live in now.

Moving right along. A big thing for me this year is not caving in to believing that others opinions of me matter. I need a reminder trigger. Haven't worked that out 100% for this one yet. I have previously taught myself to break the cycle of momentous thought, but I must revisit it, bring it back to the forefront. So mental health is one, physical health is the other with a few key focus items: general fitness & strength (this body is 40 now & needs ongoing attention!) as well as the various issues that pop up regularly, most notably, my guts and my teeth. I'm always making time for everyone else & what actually makes me keeps burning slowly in the back ground. In fact, I'd say it's not even at that level. So, before I'm too old & decrepit, it's time to just make it happen for Me and my family...

Gym, bike, dentist, eat good, drink less, sleep well.

I'm going to document all of this. Each day. My food and drink, weight, exercise, sleep, and how my body generally feels. It starts now. Good luck me!

Sleep:
Poor - 12:30am to 7am interrupted 4-5 times

Weight:
74.2kg, waiste 82cm

Exercise:
None

Food & Drink:
2* small soy Latte
Water 2000ml
Mexican tuna salad (rice beans spinach tomato corn cucumber capsicum red onion)
Fish Cakes and bean salad (as above)
2* nut mueseli bars (Carmen's?)

General Health:
Guts: 82cm, bloated, discomfort, mild pain

Saturday 14 January 2017

Day 12+13, 2017 - "Fly-Bys"

The year is flying already.  It's funny, that realisation pops up earlier and earlier each time round and this is a record for sure!  I was saying to a colleague the other day, "it's all good, we still have 50 weeks left in the year!". Haha.  In no time, that will be 26, then 13, then Xmas all over again.  Can't let it fly by like that.  At least, not without the good memories I'll be leaving here.

Day 12, Thursday. Mostly work based.  Caught the train into the city for the first time in ages.  It was relaxing.  Drive to Bacchus Marsh station, which is only and extra 5 mins from Melton station, as it's much more pleasant.  Being the start of the line, I get to choose a decent comfy seat.  Did a bit of work on the way in & caught up on my last blog post. Nice.  Home by 5:30ish.  Same old family time routine - play, eat, bath, then PS4, sleep.

Day 13, Friday.  Good OT session for Turtle.  Set up her new iPad speech App and she showed good early signs of easy use.  Need to delete all the "play" stuff off it so it can be used purely for speech.  Off to work afterwards, worked late then home to see interstate family visiting for a BBQ.  Great to see them all.  They are great with Turtle and she loves it.  Lots of hugs and play which we never get to see!!! So good!!  Later on just chilled, watched Victory scrape home with a 10 man win, PS4 then sleep by 11pm ready for a big day at Adventure Park on Saturday!

Thursday 12 January 2017

Day 10 + 11, 2017

The days kind of get away from you when work is involved and that's 2 gone in the blink of an eye!

The last 2 days certainly aren't a blur. Tuesday was a big day of catch-up & planning with work. Scheduled all the partner meetings and had some great chats with key peeps. Finished the day picking up a super happy Turtle from daycare and an evening outside playing & jumping before her bed time.

Wednesday morning was fun with Turtle, couldn't get her off the trampoline to eat her breakfast, so guess what, she ate it half on there. She'd pop her head out to get her next bite, chew it all up and then bounce a few laps before returning for more. Had to leave her on there while I started getting ready. Eventually she hopped off and ran inside... Without her pants on. Interesting. Another big day at work, half which had a migraine so sat in the day for a few hours until the neurofen kicked in. Came home to another trampoline session. Man, she loves bouncing! Best thing we ever bought for her! Played, readied Turtle for bed,
ate another awesome dinner made by Wifey (salmon + salad), tidied the house, did a few emails then chilled in the PS4. Was a good day all round except for the TV fiasco. Lesson learnt. Oh, also had a great chat with a work partner. A reminder to live in the present moment & enjoy life now. If something is desired, then make it happen. Mostly talking about holidays and travel here. Remember!

Tuesday 10 January 2017

Day 9, 2017 - "Back to work"

It was tough leaving home this morning, but made a little easier by Turtle waking up in a great mood.  She was happy when I left too.  Reports from Wife said she was a gem all day which is almost a first for a Monday!

The day at work was as expected, probably better than, actually.  Good catch up chats, sifting through important emails & jumping into our plan of attack for the year ahead.  Feels awesome to be on top of everything, all due to well organised team planning at the end of the year.

Finished the working day meeting with a prospective client and then later met the family at the old park before heading to Turtle's doctors appointment.  All went well, we were a little concerned about her ear pulling (after having grommets replaced just before Xmas).  No major concerns, just a little red from the infection prior to the operation.  Neurofen and revisit in a week.  Easy.

The evening at home was fun.  Could not get our little Turdle off the trampoline, not even for dinner.  But I love seeing her happy, smiling & giggling, so all good on my end.  For quite a long while I imagined not even coming close to this. Turtle ended up going to bed on time, Wifey went to pilates, I caught up on the FA Cup, tidied up and then had another few rounds of BF1 before bed.

Nice day all up.

Monday 9 January 2017

Day 8, 2017 - "The Dreaded Last Day of Holidays"

Last day of holidays today.  Bummer.  Have had the best time with the daughter.  2 weeks, every day.  Wish it could be like this all the time.  The wife thinks I'm crazy, but I don't care - I know when my daughter needs me & it's through the good and the bad times.

Turtle had a sleep-over at the grandparents house last night.  I picked her up just before lunch.  She wasn't happy.  Seemed as though she was expecting both Mum & Dad to walk through the door.  Oh well, off to home we went to have a nap, didn't happen, just ended up playing for a few hours and then nap time.  It was one of the good days in the end.  Nice and chilled, lots of smiles and laughs.  A great way to end the holidays.  Finished the night with a few rounds of BF1 after some badgering from my mate, something along the lines of "don't you want to end your holidays doing something you love".  Ok mate, you got me.

Day 5+6+7, 2017

Had a few drafts I didn't get the chance to finish off as we'd been away so pulling em all into one.  On a side note, I'm dreading going back to work tomorrow. Not for the work factor, more so the daughter factor. It's been an awesome few weeks with her full time. Now it's back to an hour or so a day during the week, plus weekends. I wish there was another way.

On Thursday we decided to jump in the car and drive to Ballarat, ended up staying the night at an awesome family park. Great place with decent play activities and a pool split into 5 sections (foam, spa, heated kids, swimming and a water play sections). Turtle had a ball!! We had Pancake Parlour for dinner and burnt off the sugar at the Inclusive Play Park before heading back to our cabin. Wifey and I chilled with a few drinks and watched a movie.

We started the next day with donuts and fruit for brekky, a swim in the pool, a play at the playground/jumping pillow and then headed out to the local paleo cafe. Turtle enjoyed it probably because FOOD and she even chose what cake she wanted! Proud moment, she chose the best one too. Had another crack at the Inclusive Park, but ended in frustration & anxiety for all. Drive home, no sleep for Turdle.

She did eventually go to sleep in the arvo which game me time to head to Bunnings and grab what I needed to finish off the sandpit. Stopped in at Woodgrove to grab a few other things and then back home to get to work in the back yard. Come up a treat I say, but it was a bit hot to play outside for too long.

Another stinking hot day on Saturday spent mostly indoors. Quality time with the kid and then off to Woodgrove for some indoor aircon play and snacks. Turtle did something new. At K-Mart, She actually picked a toy that she wanted! Never happened before! So proud! She even played with them from time to time over the next day. Anyway, after that, we dropped Turtle off at her grandparents for a sleepover so wifey & I could have a bit of a date night. Good times, great steak & burgers then played VR at home over a few beers.

Well it's the end of day 8 now. But I'll do a separate update tomorrow. Need to sleep and go to work in 6 hours :)

Thursday 5 January 2017

Day 4, 2017 - "No Sleep + Zoo = Bleh!"

So the day started badly due to a small amount of sleep on Turdle's account (she was awake from about 1am to 5am). But that didn't stop us sticking to our plan of hitting up the Werribee Open Range Zoo. In hindsight, it should have!

Beforehand, watched Arsenal fight back from a 3-0 deficit in the last 20 mins to draw with Bournemouth. Shocking first half, but awesome last 30-odd minutes.

To the zoo.. basically spent 3 hours walking around giving Turdle food and trying to get her to sleep. It was painful. Probably only enjoyed about 25 mins of the whole trip. She did like the emus out in the field though. 

In the end, she didn't sleep all day, too hypo, I couldn't either. Wifey got a little sleep while we played outside on the trampoline & in the sprinkler. Enjoyed a shower and then put herself to bed. Always a good sign!

Wifey went to the movies, I watched a few eps of Jessica Jones and then BF1 til bed time.

Looks like I didn't take any pics today, but found this gem on Imgur.

Wednesday 4 January 2017

Day 3, 2017


Up early today (Turtle had me up from about 4:30am) and needed to get out of the house so we headed to the play centre. Wasn't too bad, played on a few of the jumping castles and had heaps of fun in the cubby house. She loves those things. We need to buy her a new one for home, she's outgrown her little one.  Had a look online and found a few awesome ones that she'll love, but will need to put away a little bit of cashola for the perfect one.



Nothing much else exciting for the day.  Had an early night.

Tuesday 3 January 2017

Day 2, 2017 - "I'll Never Forget You, Gran"



Started off the day as per usual, letting Turtle play with her iPad.  I'd cast my phone screen to the TV but she refused to look at it.  Too tied up in her YouTube; again, nothing new!  All in all, a quiet day, however, it was definitely a significant one.  


Gran would have turned 90 today.  It's the first Birthday without her.  The first year I didn't receive a Birthday card or have a nice chat with her one way or another.  A huge gap left.

I spent a good part of the day having neat little flashbacks.  It's hard to write about it right now.  All I can say is that I miss her and think about her a lot.  I'll always be grateful for the time and effort she gave me & how much she made me feel like an important part of the world.  Wish there was somewhere for me to go and talk to her.



Monday 2 January 2017

Day 1, 2017 - "Yep, I'm Old Now"

Yep, I'm old now.
Every year I spend most of my Birthday with a pretty decent hangover.  Today was no exception! :) I'm going to go ahead and blame the rum.  Enjoyed my fave beer (Hoegaarden) for most of the night and switched to my fave rum (Kraken) around 11pm.  Think I may have made them a little stronger than usual, whoops!  Because, before midnight I was more than a little tipsy haha. Oh well.

Moving right along, was spoiled by my 2 lovely ladies, then had a visit from my Mum, sister and a few of the kids, then had a BBQ dinner with a few friends & the in-laws.  It was a nice, chilled-out relaxing day.

At the end of the night, managed to piece together the new VR setup.  Pretty awesome I must say.  Not sure if it was the remnants of the hangover or the VR motions but I went to bed feeling pretty crook, which carried through to the next morning.  Either way, it was all worth it :)

Sunday 1 January 2017

Here we go again... :)

I'm a lucky guy and not a day goes by that I'm not thankful for what I have.. A beautiful loving daughter who looks up to me with her naughty/cheeky face and wins me over in a moment... and a stunner of a wife who takes great care of our little unit of a family. Together they give me all the purpose I need in life to be the best I can be.

2016 saw some pretty extreme highs and lows for me. Got married, had a few kickarse holidays, bought our first house. Also said goodbye to both of my Grandparents within a few months of each other. I had a number of huge eye-opening moments during a few workshops - all of which have changed the way I interact with people, but more importantly, how I view myself & remain present in the moment.


As for 2017, I have a pretty good feeling about this one. I'm not a superstitious guy but I take notice of numbers for some reason. I've always been a fan of 1's and 7's and various combinations of them. Being that I was born 01/01/77 has everything to do with it I suppose! Example: I picked the winner of 2016 Melbourne Cup because it was horse #17 running from gate #17 and to squeeze a little extra out of it, rounding up my winnings to $170. Haha. Anyway, this year kicks off today, 01/01/17. Nice!


I'll keep this whole thing short & sweet... I'm super thankful for last year's learnings & I'm keen to dive into 2017's challenges. And I'm not one to lock in resolutions each year, but now that I'm "over the hill" I'm going to ramp up extra attention to my health, and keep on giving my best, specifically, to my family.


Til next time. 😄

Day 365, 2016

Well here we are, back at the start again. 2017 aye. Could be alright. Only one way to find out.. and with a memory like mine, it's by documenting it. 
I had the same plan for last year but things got a little distracting & I totally lost momentum. So this time, the plan is to remember the point to it all..
I want to be able to look back at the year and see what was achieved, progressed and learned.. with good focus on my family life. I won't talk too much about work unless it's something significant.
So here goes.. farewell 2016. From what I can remember, you've been alright. Cheers. 