Wednesday 11th January - Calm before the storm

Today was a relaxing day in Hervey Bay. Mum, Dad and i went for a stroll along the beach this morning. It was a very warm day but the morning and early afternoon was cloudy and even Mum burnt her arms...it is deceiving just how strong the sun is even when its overcast. The tide was in but on its way out so we had to cut right up next to the rocks in places to get past. We strolled on the pier and i managed to get this photograph of mum and dad before my camera lens fogged up! Due to the humidity, the lens fogs whenever i take it out of the camera case...Gaz's mum has told me to leave it out so the lens can warm up in sufficient time before i take a photo...the fogging was getting rather annoying!

Mum and dad popped out to the butchers and were surprised at how friendly the butcher was...and impressed that he remembered their faces from the day before and he wasn't even the guy that served them! Mum cooked us some chicken and a fantastic salad...with apple and cheese mixed into the lettuce, onion, tomatoes and cucumber? who would have thought that would be so tasty in a salad! After lunch we drove over to Booral to where i have my horse riding lessons. Luckily the horses were at the entrance to the field so we were able to give them a pet. I introduced the family to Buddy..the horse i usually ride. He enjoyed the apple i fed him but kept nosing me wanting more...unfortunately the camera isn't edible but he did try! Here is a photo of Buddy...i probably should have got a better angle on him so that his head didn't look so big but i was limited with movement as there was a tree next to me. 

When we got back to the house it was time for a relaxing dip in the pool! Dad didn't join us as he was a little red from the walk so he stayed in the shade but mum had a swim. We worked up an appetite for a meal at the boat club - dad had his usual fish and chips (scraping off the batter to eat the fish as per usual) and mum went for the boat club burger thinking it would be a light meal...only it was huge! You know you are a regular somewhere when the guy showing you to your seats automatically assumes you are wanting a table for 2 (as usually it is only gas and i) and is surprised when you say...no, table for 4 please...and he then responds 'i have your usual table by the window'.  The food was great and what better way to let it go down than a stroll along Urangan Pier....the pier that is deceivingly long! The weather has been fantastic...i am so glad it hasn't been raining! Tomorrow we head down to Brisbane to get some rest before an early morning flight on Friday. 

Tuesday 10th January - Hervey Bay

What a great day! Mum and dad enjoyed morning tea and coffee on the balcony. Thankfully the sun was shining today and it reached 32degrees! Gaz played on the computer leaving some alone time for me and the parents. I drove them down to the botanical gardens Hervey bay which they were very impressed with. The gardens are peaceful with the tranquil noise of the water fountains in the lake. I showed mum and dad the resident turtles in the lake who kept popping their little heads out of the water to see what was going on. Very cute. It was very hot so we got back in the car and drove over to Togoom (an area that rated highly with Gaz's parents). Fortunately when we arrived, the tide was in which makes the place look so much more scenic than when the tide is out. Mum and dad were in awe of peoples houses with boats at the bottom of their garden occupying the sea. We tried to buy some cold beers in the cafe and take them for our picnic but we were told off and told they did not have a licence for us to take alcohol off the premises. They drank the beers at the table instead and afterwards we grabbed the picnic box from the car and took it over to a sandy part of Togoom. We crossed a bridge and saw the biggest crab i have ever seen shuffling its way down the river. There were also lots of little crabs in the mangroves - the colour of which was beautiful...a bright blue shell. We also spotted some little fish with legs walking along the mud flats? don't know what they were! Anyway, we enjoyed the picnic in the shade on the beach and sat amazed at how quiet it was around there.

When we got back to the house mid afternoon, Gaz had finished on the computer. We sat on the balcony before mum and dad ventured to the butchers to get meat for the bbq. Gaz and i went in the pool which was the warmest it has been! Mum and dad joined us not long after they got back. I had to vacate the pool around 4pm to get ready for an interview at Primere Dental Studio. Fro the outside the place looked pretty smart but inside looked a little dated and run down. I was told previously that the job was meant for a woman but her husband died of a heart attack and she hadn't been in touch with the practice manager. I had a voice mail this morning saying the job was definitely available as this woman had had to go back to china. By the time i turned up for the interview i was informed that the woman was 'in shock' and would now like the job back. Therefore, the job was no longer available but she wanted to get me in 'just in case' it all falls through with this woman. Any way, i wasn't too bothered...the practice was very shabby compared to Aura (the previous job i have been offered)...and although she said she could make the unit left handed, the room was tiny and there is no way it could be left handed to suit my needs. I went home not really giving two hoots about the job being taken as i would have only turned it down if it was still on offer. I think I've been spoilt with how nice Aura was!

Gaz drove us up to point vernon to see the eagles nest - it would appear a family of crows has taken over? Not quite sure if the eagles have gone on holiday but 4 big black crows had their heads int he eagles nest. We carried on the drive in the search for the local kangaroos that we have seen grazing around peoples gardens. It wasn't looking too promising but gas drove past an opening to a field and i spotted one lying down. We went to inspect...there wasn't just one...we thought there were 4...then we saw more...then in the distance...hundreds. It was great to see so many wild kangaroos going about their business, letting us snap photos of them. Beautiful creatures.

After the kangaroo tour, we had a bbq over the road next to the beach. Mum and dad had picked a good selection of meats from the butchers and gas cooked it all - he would make his dad proud! A few BCB's (burnt crispy bits) but all cooked to perfection!

We have been sitting down at the picnic area for most of the night and have only now (9pm) retired to the comfort of our bedrooms. I think mum is sat on the balcony enjoying the warm evening in the fresh air. Tomorrow is meant to be even hotter than today and will be our last full day in hervey bay with mum and dad before we drive down to brisbane on thursday. Enjoy the pics!

Monday 9th January - Parents to stay!

On saturday morning i drove Gaz and i down to brisbane. My parents were not arriving until sunday evening but it was a perfect opportunity to get some shopping done at Chermside shopping centre in Brisbane for some much needed clothes and the essentials - ie. Macbook air and iphone4s. For those that are unaware, Chermside shopping centre is huge and has many shops including an apple store. Saturday was devoted to the apple store. I am now the proud owner of not only a macbook air but also an iphone4s. I was so excited about my new purchase (which Gaz very kindly stuck on his credit card...but i will pay him back!), i told a girl in the newsagents next door we had just been to the mac store...i only said it because i was so excited but in hindsight, it sounded very snobby. We checked in to our hotel, intact it is the same hotel we stayed in with Gaz's parents before our moreton island trip. In the evening we met up with Emily and Tony (our friends who live in Brisbane) and had a hogs breath cafe meal. i must admit the hogs breath didn't have quite the charm of the one in Hervey Bay as the staff were a little miserable in Brisbane but none the less, the food was still excellent.

Sunday morning and it was time for a day of serious shopping. I went around the shops with Gaz in the morning and i was very impressed to see he was picking out smart clothes! i don't mean to sound patronising but in gaz's own words 'i do dress a bit like a tramp'. We ate lunch together in the food court before parting ways and i went on my own mission to find some clothes. I bought some much needed underwear from la senza and some hair products and MAC makeup i desperately needed...but i couldn't find anything i liked in any of the clothes shops...except one 350AUD dress. As luck would have it, it was in the sale so i had to have it! When Gaz and i met back up i was pleased to see he had bought 3 pairs of very smart surfy shorts and 2 t shirts and 2 polo shirts. He even bought new flip flops to replace the very worn ones he has had for the last number of years. We chose some designer sunglasses for him in the sunglass shop and he purchased some new beaded surfy necklace and bracelets for himself. He looks very trendy!!!

We didn't have long back at the hotel before leaving to pick up mum and dad from the airport. It was really great to see them! They said the flight wasn't too bad as dad had slept most of the way..mum had made friends with the german guy in front who kept putting his seat back on her and dad slept. We drove them to the hotel where we dropped their luggage and as it was nearing 9pm, we went straight out to get a bite to eat before places closed. We sat outside in a burger venue just down the road...again outside the chermside shopping centre. The weather was really hot all day so it was great for mum and dad to experience Aus without the rain! We got back to the hotel and sat chatting on the balcony before heading to bed for a well earned sleep!

This morning mum and dad were up early. it is hard to sleep much past 6am when the sun is blaring through the windows! i woke up at 7.30am to find them both sat on the balcony enjoying a cup of coffee. Mum had her legs out and was basking in the sun. Dad sat with his long sleeved shirt and trousers on...must have been baking!

Once gas was up, he offered to drive us to hervey bay. Bless him, he drove the whole 3.5 hour trip north to hervey bay and i didn't drive once. Thank you gaz! It has been very hot today. Thank god for air conditioning because we got stuck in a half hour traffic jam on the bruce highway..that wasn't much fun.

We gave mum and dad a tour of the house before heading down the esplanade to hoolihans (the irish pub) to grab some lunch. Afterwards, we strolled on the beach and then took them down to the marina to see some of the impressive boats that are docked there. The sun beat down on us so we grabbed a drink in the boat club and sat on the decking outside, enjoying the view of the boats and the heat from the sun. We headed home and had a dip in the pool to cool off!

Gaz cooked a curry tonight. Well, i say A curry - he cooked 3 different types!!! We had a korma, which was excellent....a bhuna and a madras. Unfortunately he rushed the madras and accidentally put 4 times as much chilli in the curry as intended...It was very hot but still fantastic. My parents were very impressed!!! Gaz is quite the master chef...we are all pretty knackered now so have left mum and dad on the balcony and we are off to bed!

06/01/2012 110 posts later, and Gareth finally contributes

So I have been informed by Dad, through the intermediary of Vicky, that I should write at least one of the blog posts. Seeing as I went fishing the other day I was not surprised to see the timing of this request and as such it seems to make sense that I take over the blog duty for the day.

Unfortunately less seems to happen in my general day than vicky's so I hope you are prepared to be underwhelmed.

I should probably start today's blog post with an account of my fishing trip yesterday. The scene is set as so, Vicky wakes me up at 5am (worrying about a patient she numbed up "a bit too much"), I attempt to reassure her/dismiss any talk so I can get back to sleep, the next thing I know, I have woken up due to my phone vibrating. At first i called for vicky (why i have no idea) before eventually realising that it was somebody calling me. I am not at my cerebral best in the morning (this generalisation covers the entire morning) but i mustered the energy at 8.20am to answer the phone and attempt to piece together who I was talking too. After a good 30 seconds I realised who i was talking too and had arranged to join Mark (work colleague of Vicky's) to go out for a mornings fishing.

I scoffed some breakfast, put on the sun block and attempted to mask the smell of the previous nights exercise with a generous helping of deodorant a la, the spanish shower, fortunately with some decent success. Mark picked me up in his 4x4 with his 6 metre tiny and 40hp motor in tow. We drive along to Vernon point and quickly launch the boat into the sea. It appeared the everyone who was not in work were on their boats, albeit no more than 500 yards from the shore. As such, Mark decided to motor just a little bit further away and we set up for some fishing.

The rods were fairly light and similar to that of the ones currently propped up in the garage and we had a mixture of squid and prawns for bait. Mark handed me my road and by the time he got his own in the water i had already caught a "insert generic snapper like fish name" here. The hook was only ever so slightly smaller than the fish. It was an omen of things to come. After about 3-4 hours of fishing we had caught a large variety of fish albeit on a narrow scale of size! I will state this part just now, I did catch the biggest fish, which is what is important! but all in all we caught the snapper-esq fish, a "grinner" (like a flathead, large open mouth, that has a certain toothy grin), flathead (about 12 inches), parrot fish, a toady (that spat water over both of us), cod and, weirdest of all, mark had proclaimed that i had caught a "knot" eel. It was brown and looked like a small 12 inch moray eel.... It was only as i lifted it out of the water that i saw where this fish got it's name from as it tried to knot itself around the hook and line. It was very interesting to watch, however it made it difficult to remove the hook, I suggested to Mark that i lower it back in to the water so that it could un-tie itself and then i could either cut the line or try to be quick and remove the hook. Unfortunately the fish had different ideas, and abused the "give an inch, take a mile" mantra as he went into knot overdrive, worked up past the weight and a further 6 to 12 inches up the line. "Uhhh Mark...." there was literally nothing we could do but cut the line, weight hook and all... cut a long story short, it sank pretty fast. But as all fishermen are eternal optimists, I am sure he freed himself.... sort of.... maybe......hmmmm. The absolute worst case scenario is he will reintegrate into the food system.

That was the last fish of the day and I got back to the house just in time for vicky's lunch break! It was really enjoyable and i hope i'm lucky enough or good enough at bribing Mark with offers of newly discovered curry recipes that he will take me out on it again.

The rest of the day was "as usual" so to speak. I played more computer and we settled for an early night.


After writing so much about yesterday I really don't want to make this post tl;dr (too long, didn't read) so i will keep it brief (not least for the fact that not a lot happened) I succeeded at playing the computer more and Vicky went out for an afternoon/evening ride out with Cassie from work. I was told it was "hot but enjoyable" without much expansion on that but she seemed very happy with being able to go out for a ride so obviously it was good. After this we decided to do another session of that bastard (the bastard is silent when pronouncing the full title) bodyrockers home workout. Thankfully the evening off the night before meant that we were slightly more recovered/supple than previously, we bashed through the workout and felt relatively ok after it, to the point that even I was happy to create some further exercises to push ourselves that little bit harder tonight than we would have otherwise. Bring out the boxing gloves and pads, and 5 minutes later I'm shouting at Vicky every word under the sun. I have no idea how thin our garage walls are but I would not be surprised if it sounded like a case of domestic abuse. "why.. do you do this to me.." thud! "Stop talking..." whack! I think we both enjoyed it really though and it was good to get that little bit extra done (and not just ache in our quads for a change).

We then needed to get some food but most of the restaurants in Hervey bay stop serving by 9... I know, I don't know why either, but we were able to find a nice boodle bar that was open for another 20 mins so we scooted off an enjoyed some nice fresh beef and noodles (mine sans all the veg that vicky added to hers), scoffed it down and got back to the house for about 9.30 pm.

We're both very excited about the prospect of seeing Alan and Gloria on Sunday (hope your flight is alright guys) and Vicky is also very excited about our trip to Brisbane shopping (note the difference in the excitement between the two events, the excitement for shopping is singular). I am currently sat here trying to think of ways i can procrastinate whilst in Chermside shopping centre. I have already prepared my answers "it looks great on you!".... "Wow, both look stunning, you can get either one you want!", "I'll be at Mcdonalds if you need me..." and lastly "zzzz". hopefully the relationship will survive tomorrow. If vicky thinks i moan when it comes to working out, then it's just the tip of the iceberg compared to when shopping!

See you soon guys (i will try to post another update sooner than the next 110 posts)

Gareth out!

Thursday 5th January - Holiday begins!

Work yesterday was a nightmare. I managed to drop some poor old ladies dentures on the floor right in front of her, snap 2mm off the end of some moody buggers tooth and couldnt get it out and i even injected some tiny dwarf girl and gave her bells palsy! She rang 3 hours later concerned she still couldnt move her eye or blink so i had to try and calm her down and tell her 'these things happen, you'll be fine'...oops. Despite knowing the poor girl would be fine, i still woke up at 4am this morning not able to sleep, just a little concerned about her.

After work yesterday i went for a power walk with Jacqui who is like a little pocket rocket! It was hard work keeping up with her up and down all the hills. When i got back Gaz and i did day 2 of the body rocker challenge. Gaz is very sore from it today and my legs arent feeling too great either. We have made a mutual agreement with each other that instead of doing the workouts monday to friday and have sat/sun rest, we will instead break up the rest days, so tonight was a rest day (we will just do tonights workout tomorrow night and only take one rest day on the weekend instead of 2 so that we catch up with the programme).

Today work went a bit more smoothly. I had a nice surprise when Gaz text me at 8.30am to say Mark (the lab technician) has rung him and is taking Gaz out on his boat. The weather was hot and sunny, not very windy - perfect conditions for fishing. Gaz and Mark both caught a variety of things, nothing worth keeping though apparently. It was nice to come home at lunch time and have Gaz enthusiastic and excited about how his morning went. He should definitely go out more often!

Tuesday 3rd January - Day 1 bodyrocker challenge

Work was pretty busy today probably because people were trying to escape the heat from outside so thought they would turn up for their appointments in the air conditioned surgeries. 

Gaz did well on the computer but was a little drowsy after taking a sleeping tablet the night before.

This evening we both did the first of a 30 day bodyrocker challenge...the aim was to do 7 exercises, each one we had to do as many repetitions as we could for 50seconds before a 10 second rest and carrying on to do the next exercise. Overall it was 7 minutes of exercise which sounds like nothing, but believe me when you are going as fast as you can on each exercise, its hard! Gaz and i were both sweating after the 7 minutes. In 30 days we will do exactly the same drill to see if we have improved on the number of reps that we do. Bodyrocker website has also posted an eating plan...it will be difficult to follow it strictly when mum and dad are here but we will take the key aspects of it and try to follow them through for the 30 days. Gaz is doing the shop tomorrow, mainly for fruit and veg...oh and some salmon which he has informed me he will be vacating the room when i start cooking it as he hates the smell of fish. 

My eating plan for today hasnt been too bad....cereal, left over chilli for lunch and 2 weetbix is all ive had today...day 3 of no chocolate :( I dont drink, i dont smoke and i dont do drugs....but i do love chocolate! Am looking forward to my second bodyrocker challenge tomorrow! 

Monday 2nd January - 2012 CHALLENGE

Gaz and i didnt get up till 9.30am today...bliss! Ive finally sorted out mum and dads trip and we are both very excited for their arrival this coming saturday! Gaz and i will be heading down friday so that i can raid the apple store for a new laptop and iphone...good times! We are then going to have all of saturday to shop aswell which gaz is very excited about...not. Infact Gaz wore the shirt mum bought him from hollister and the new jeans i bought him from NEXT for new year and he looked VERY smart!

Gaz played on the computer today...he did well. Im always limited as to how much info i can give away on the blog 'just in case' but overall hes making twice what im on!

I always like to have a challenge for the year...in 2006 i travelled east coast of aus, in 2007 i travelled canada from Toronto through to Vancouver...2008 i did Italy (more of a holiday though)with mum and learnt to snowboard..2009 - i must have fallen asleep in this year? but i did get some more snowboarding in....2010 i climbed kilimanjaro and in 2011 i did the edinburgh marathon. So i need a new challenge for the year. I thought long and hard but if theres one thing thats bugging me right now, its my weight. I have recently come across a website called bodyrocker-tv and its an exercise programme to follow at home. It involves no gym membership, no fancy equipment and can all be done in the comfort of your own home. It has a different workout for each day that usually takes no more than 20 mins but its a very intense workout..the bodyrocker website is even putting together a full diet programme to follow for the month. At present im a size 10 but the more size 12 side of size 10....my aim is to drop to a size 8 - and the more size 6 side of size 8. Gaz says size 6 is too skinny so a small size 8 would be great! Ill be weighing myself every morning before work (around 7.15am). My current weight is 62KG.

Gaz has taken a before photo of me tonight...but its a little embarrassing so after 1 month i will put it up against a second photo showing my progress...this is my challenge for 2012 so i will keep going with it until i get to my desired weight/size. I started yesterday with eating healthy and have managed to carry it on through to today. As of tomorrow i will be following the body rocker diet. I will keep my own progress posted on this  blog. Gaz says hes going to do it with me...he wouldnt stand for a before photo though lol.