Gerri Atric’s Neighborhood

I'm sure if Daz had of tried just a little bit harder he could have bought a more difficult wedding present for me to wrap.

Not much harder mind you.

There was a gift registry, he was going to the big smoke, so I said - go and spend about $100.00. And he came home with this weird mish mash of items. He was super impressed with himself because there had been 30% off everything and he was able to get a lot of totally random unrelated items.

I said - couldn't you have just bought one item?

He said - well I could've got the ironing board.

Easier to wrap no doubt, but not as easy to fit in the car.

So I've ignored it for two weeks but the wedding is tomorrow so I had to face up to it today. A lot of sticky tape was used. And I'm not sure a piece of curly silver ribbon is going to make it look better either.

But at least its crap they want.

So this is Emjays son who is getting married. My nephew. It is going to be a huge, long and hot day, that will start with a three hour drive for us to even get there. I'm planning on taking my swimmers to have a splash around in the motel pool between the service and the reception. That will hopefully be followed by a nap. And we have to fit lunch in sometime before the service and all stay clean. Lol, we have to get dressed at 7.30 in the morning, drive three hours in Lloyds old smashed up Magna, eat lunch, go to the service, fill in a few hours, then turn up at the reception still looking clean and fresh.

Don't know what that chances of that are. But it should be a good day and night. Big.

Emjay tells me I should wish for my children to elope.

"I know, you know, there's no denying it, these are scary and uncertain economic times. Property values continue to plummet like a six-year-old out of a mylar balloon. Retirees are trading in their 401(k)s for a box of Special K. And the dollar has been slapped around so hard it's asked the euro for a safe word."

Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report (11/11/09)

Yeah, that about sums it up.

Since I have had nothing to say lately I will post this...

I think this is hilarious, and I bought myself the shirt
http://rescuemarriage.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/chains_of_love_t-shirt.gif

Here's something interesting that happened the other day.

You may have seen this tile I made using one of Papas photos. It was taken in Paris in 1957.

Paris-1957

Anyway, last week someone bought it, then sent me an email asking if I did any custom work. Turns out this lady had been to paris last year with her husband and said she had a photo of him in the same spot and could I make a similar tile using it. So I told her to email it to me and I'd have a look.

Well, she wasn't joking, and in fact if her husband wasn't actually in the photo it would just about be spot on. So I managed to make it pretty similar and these are going to be his christmas present.

Steve2

I had a sleep this afternoon and when I woke up I glanced at the clock, read it as saying 5pm and thought, ah, cocktail hour. So I came out, turned on the laptop and went and got a glass of wine. Sat down, checked my emails then looked at the clock and realised it was only 3pm. It was a little concerning how Daz, who was sitting on the lounge watching tv, didn't even ask me why I was drinking wine at 3pm.

I had great success with the swimmer buying trip. These are the ones I bought. I saw them a couple of months ago in a magazine and thought that they were the ones I wanted. So I kept the photo on the bench then rang around last week and found a store that had one pair in my size and they held them for me. I went in, tried them on, loved them and looked awesome in them.

If only it could always be that easy. Mine are black though not blue.

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I also bought a pair of Sea Folly's. Because you definitely need two pairs of swimmers on holidays. Nothing worse than trying to put a wet pair of swimmers on. Well there is one thing. Trying to put a pair of compression stockings on your mother when she has damp legs. Thats hard work.

So the other pair are a tankini with a boyleg. I always like to get a boyleg because there's less box maintenance involved then.

I also got some shorts and t's, two bras on sale and a really cool hat. 

So now I have an outfit I love to wear to the wedding and swimmers I'm happy to parade around in on holidays.

Way to go. All this working out is paying off.

Yep, this morning was my last chance training session. Because tomorrow is the day I go shopping for a pair of swimmers.

See, I've been trialling this new way of living where I take one day at a time. Just live that day. Don't worry about the future and forget about the past. The one flaw with this plan is that one day you happen to glance at your calender and realise you'll be leaving for Thailand in three weeks and don't have a thing organised.

So I'm off to the big(ish) smoke tomorrow on the dreaded swimming costume search. I will have an egg on toast and a glass of juice before I go so I feel fortified and strong. You don't want to risk any mid afternoon blood sugar level drops because that could lead to depression and feelings of self loathing.

One thing you must remember when trying on swimmers is that there will be none of those awful change room down lights that show up every dimple of cellulite, on the beach. Another thing to remember is that 99% of people are perfectly average just like you. So unless there happens to be some sort of super model convention happening where we are I should be fine. And if there is...... well best not to even contemplate that.

But I am shopping for swimmers at a great time. I've just lost 7 kilos so I'm feeling pretty damn fine and this morning I managed to fit into a pair of size 10 Cue pants which didn't hurt the self confidence either. Plus it means I have something to wear to my nephews wedding next weekend.

But the main thing going in my favour are the people I'm travelling with. There will be my daughter Kimba and her friend Nat, both 21, almost 6 feet tall and gorgeous, and there will be Lizzie, 17, beautiful, all dark and mysterious. So no ones even going to be looking at me.

Of course Jem will be there as well. She's 5 years younger than me at 40. She's at that difficult age where you still feel like you have to show you've still got it. Whereas once you hit (almost) 46, you're not as hard on yourself. I mean there comes a time where you just have to say, this is it. This is me. I eat healthily, (well, except for the wine, but its not going anywhere) and I exercise like a demon, and this is as good as it's going to get. And its not that bad.

However, having said all that, I still find shopping for swimmers to be the most horrendous job out there. Hopefully it all goes to plan.