Time goes by....

Just like yesterday use to be tomorrow.....

New years eve, a time to look both forwards and backwards. will my 2008 overall was very good, wife and my first full year together in New Zealand, our 2nd Christmas (which was better than the 1st!) Wife getting her permit to stay in NZ and lots of other things too! it was a year of being very happy and lots of love, guess you really can't ask for more than that! the down sides were few and far between really and it was stuff out of our control, things like the car breaking down.

Looking forward to 2009:

1) have a great year with the wife
2) lose 25+ kg that I found in 2008!
3) visit the in-laws in the Philippines
4) start a family (maybe)
5) make good friends and keep old good friends too
6) get more involved in the Filipino group here
7) anything else I've forgotten!

On the weight front, today's weight 129.25, only a small lost, but better than none! I'd like to be down to about 110 -105kg by end of August, if I can stick to it, I should be able to do it easy I HOPE!

jeff

To hot

Today was just way to hot, it was only 21 deg C but I get to stand next to the boiler on the steam engine all day which just makes it uncomfortable to say the lest! but it's all part of the job and I DO love the job, but just like all jobs it has it's good and bad points.... like slowing cooking in summer ;)

I guess one of the worst jobs I've done is cleaning out the smoke box at the end of the boiler so the boiler inspector can have a good look at it and we also took out the steam pipe to weld new ends on them. When you look at the photo all you see is a rusty looking place, BUT before I cleaned it out it was just BLACK with fine soot and ash, anyway it is a very good feeling when after all the work on it over a month or two it's finished and has come alive again.

Alive you say? YES it's the only thing that comes close to describing how it is.... how the engine seems to breath and live, how you have to feed and water it or it dies again, really the only major differences that a steam engine can die and then be made to live again and every other thing is dead for ever when it dies.

Today's weight 129.30kg, that's 1.25kg lost in 24 hours, so it make 2.80kg in 48 hours, I guess some of it is water but then I have also been good on the diet so far this week!

Jeff

Not much

Not much to report that is, work today was good, fixed a small problem on one of the engines and then re-steamed it and give it to the road crew to use on the trains today, got the other engine of them and put that away. Did a few other small jobs and ended up going home about 2:30pm as I had a very bad stomach which was making life a bit "interesting".

Other then that I've had a very easy day, weight this morning was 130.30Kg, that's 1.55kg lost in 24 hours, I think it's mostly water....

Jeff

Christmas is OVER!

Well Christmas is over for another year! Wife and I had a good Christmas, we went to my Mum & dad's place on the other side of the island, from my town to there city is only 100km in a straight line but because of a range of mountains the road takes 250km to get between the two places, in one place the road does a U turn and you end up heading back towards your starting point for a time. The road is a LOT better then it us to be, not that long ago it was a nightmare to drive with lots of hairpin bends and one lane sections, now it's only got a few one lane bridges left and the worst part has been widened to two lanes. Anyway takes about 3 hours for the drive.

Christmas day was nice and easy, Church in the morning to keep wife happy, I found it OK, I'm not much of one for church but I've been far more times this year with wife then anytime in my life. After that back to mum & dad's and open the gifts, got some good stuff this year and Wife's gifts were great! We got ourselves a playstation 2 and a few games, it's a great time waster but fun!

As always the food and stuff was very good and as always I ate way to much again! the weight has gone up badly.... No make that VERY badly! it was 131.85kg this morning :( I can't blame anybody but myself :( anyway I have given me a good kick up the backside and will try to be very good starting from today!

Jeff

The eve of christmas eve...

The silly season is just about over! Only another 2 days of it and then I'm safe till next year! it's not that I hate Christmas it's more that I hate all the silly things that people do....

It's things like the little old lady that drives her car 4 times a year, 3 of those in the few days before Christmas, drives down the road at a 20km/h and does not care that the traffic is backed up behind her for 3 blocks or the Mum with the kids out of control in a shop, she's happy because the kids are leaving her alone, everybody else in the shop would love to kill the kids.... also the fact the people go over board and buy way to many gifts and then spend months paying for them.....

I think people get wrapped up in the "GIVING" and miss the point of Christmas (while the point for me...) it's BEING with family and friends, taking time out of everyday life and just enjoying time with the ones you love ( & hopefully love you back!)

Having said that I think both the Wife and I have spent to much money on gifts, it's Ok we paid cash for most of them, it's been interesting this year to see how my Wife sees Christmas, last year she was still very shy to my family and had only been in NZ for a few months, this year she's full on and showing me how Filipino's do Christmas, must say it's much more than I'm use too! For me Christmas was a few cheap things that people could hopefully use and time with the family, all up maybe $50, this year in line with Filipino tradition we have got a large number of gifts for all the family, it's making Wife happy which makes me happy! also with all those gifts and sure the rest of the family should be happy too! ;)

Weight 127.55kg, very small gain, worst to come in the next few days! good point is I will not have the scales with me, so I'll not be able to check the damage!

Have a Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year people!

Jeff

Just another post....

Just a short post about life in the last few days....

Weight is down to 127.50kg which is good, but I need to be very careful over Christmas to not do to much damage to my weight e.g. watch what I eat and DON'T eat to much!

Work is ticking along, it's picking up fast and looks like a good summer season, most likely because petrol is a lot cheaper than this time last year.


Iligan (Wife's home town in the Philippines) has had a couple of more bombs found, happily found before they went off so no damage or anything else, there has also been a couple of false alarms, but that's understandable in the current climate in Iligan, all I hope that the madness is stopped soon and nobody else is hurt and the PNP (Philippine National Police) catch the mad men/women behind the bombs.

Jeff

The week that was...

Well what a week! But it's now over and hopefully I don't have another one like that for some time! The car has now been fixed, total cost $1190, it's a bit better than the $1300 quoted, but Wife & I still had to hit our savings account, but what could we do? we need the car so I can get to work easy, It's only 15km and on a good day I can bicycle it in about 35 minutes, which I did 2 times this week, BUT on a bad day with a head wind it can take about 1 hour, which I also had this week.

Yesterday the Wife decided to test my new first aid skills by choking.... Anyway I got her up, bent over a bit and then 5 hard hits on her back between her shoulder balds, the last hit she took in a big breath of air and stopped choking, we don't know what it was because we had finished eating about 10 minutes before. I'm just happy that Wife is OK and I didn't have to do "chest thrust" or worse CPR!

The weight has been all over the place this week, got down to 126.4kg but now I'm back up to 128.40kg, I think (know) it's due to a few things like work Christmas party, stress over the car, not walking because of the bad weather (heavy rain) for the last couple of days. I should say "right get back into it" but I'm feeling as if I have given up till after boxing day (26th Dec) I don't know, All I know is that I should try very hard to get back on track, but the "will power" is missing just now. Interesting thing was I felt so GOOD after riding the bike to work and back for 2 days, guess that's the answer.... get out and do more, just have to do it and that can be hard to do!

My Wife's home city in the Philippines was hit with 2 bombs in shops this week, the bombs killed 3 and injured 45. The Wife's family is safe which is good to know, but I can not for the life of me see how bombing people is a good way to get them to join with you? Iligan city is part of the area in the southern Philippines that the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) want control over, The area happens to be rich in things like gold etc, anyway the MILF is using tactics like bombing shops to make the people of Iligan join with them (Iligan is about 95% Christian) I can not see the good people of Iligan joining the MILF because of a few bombs, also I can't help feel the MILF is more interested in the gold and other riches in the ground than the welfare of anybody apart from them self's.

Anyway on a happyer note, we have finished our Christmas shopping, I do think just maybe we went a "little" overbroad! never mind it should be a good one this year just for one little fact.... I'm NOT working boxing day! I don't have to be at work at 7am to lite up the steam engine after it's been sitting a day without a fire in it, samebody else gets to do it this year!

Now if you can find it on the net or the shop I would suggest that you have a listen to "Matthew West - This ordinary life" great song and the rest of his album "Sellout" is good to! it's Chirstian pop, but it's not over the top and it's just plain good!

Jeff

life without a car....

I hate not having a car, today more so because it was raining and it looks like I'll be without a car for at lest the rest of the week :(

No the good side, I have biked home from work today, took me 35 minutes of pedaling to do it, guess that's a good time because it's only 20 minutes longer than the car travel time and it's better for me, also walked from home to wife's work and back after meeting her there, so that was another 30 minutes walk. Should all be good for the weight tomorrow I hope!

Today's weight was 127.40 kg not good but after the weekend I had I'm not surprised!

Jeff

A.W.O.L

AWOL ? What's that I hear you asking....

Absent With Out Leave

It's a army thing, but it sums up my weekend in a way, Friday Wife and I were busying with Christmas shopping and getting ready to go to a Christmas party, the party was Saturday night. It was also in another town about 1 hour drive north of our town, we had to take food and a present, so as I said Friday was racing around getting the present and cooking the food, Saturday we hit the road about 12 noon, we arrived at the other town around 1:15pm checked into the motel we had booked and then went to the party site to see if we could help set up, but it was all done by the time we got there.

So back to the hotel, we made use of the extra time we had, we tried out the spa bath! ;) very relaxing it was! Then dressed up in my case and glamoured up in the wife's case, boy did she look GREAT! I was secretly smiling away to myself thinking how lucky I am to have a great looking wife, wife is also fun and very smart, I couldn't wish for or want more in my wife then I have! out to the party site and we had fun and caught up with friends, I got up and danced a little, but I'm not much of a dancer and also my shoes were giving me blisters on my heals, wife had a ball dancing with her friends.

Next day we did a road trip, took the LONG way home, did a extra 250km's we didn't need to, but we had fun and saw same more of this great county along the way, we went to a place that both of us had never been to before. The only down side was the power steering in the car failed making it very very hard to steer, the good news was it was only 500 meters from home, could have happened anytime in the day and could have been over 300km from home, so I guess we were really lucky that it failed so close to home!

Anyhow I have taken it in to a repair shop today and I already have a quote for the repair... $1300! FAR OUT! I mean the car only cost me $4000 3 years ago, so it's over 1/4 the cost of the car! but I need the car to get to work because there is no public transport at all..... never mind it's life I guess, you win some, you lose some....

Specking of which.... the weight isn't good, 3 days of the diet and not much in the way of walking has put the weight up to 127.15kg :( it's bad, but not as bad as I was thinking it would be!

Jeff

now what was it?

Hi All,

Will I had a plan of what I was going to write about in today's post, but right now I have NO IDEA what it was! :)

Anyway.....

Work was good, fixed a few small problems on the loco that is have it's yearly boiler check, re steamed it and had fixed all 3 problems only thing was it ended up with another new problem, it's a small problem and very easy to fix, only thing is you have to empty the boiler to do it!

Had a walk after work, not much only about 40 minutes, but over all a good day.

Weight 126.05 kg.... YES that's a NEW low for me!

Jeff

A good day...

Hi All,

Well today was a good day at work, a bit hot, but good, I was driving the train today but in between I was also steaming up the other engine for the first time after it's boiler safety check. All went not to bad, but I was busy all day because of it!

I have ended up doing a HUGE amount of walking today, went for a 30 minute walk after dropping Wife off at work and then I must have spent half my day at work walking around as I worked on the train and the 2nd engine And to top it all off.... I got home from work and Wife decided that we were going for a walk!

So to cut a long story short, we walked down to the local discount shop and got some Christmas cards and wrapping paper then we called into the supermarket and got a "few" items! all up another 45 minutes of walking.

Today's weight 126.15kg also most back down to last weeks record low!

Jeff

First Aid Pt 2

Hi All,

Well today was the 2nd part of the First aid course, I'm happy to say that I passed! so I'm good for another 2 years now. must say that the assessment at the end was a bit hard on the nerves... I lucked out in that I got a easy-ish scenario to deal with. At first looking at it, it looked like a simple fall, but when you got into it and did all the assessment of the "victim" I found it was a stoke, so you end up treating both the stoke and the fall injury's until the "real" help arrived.

Anyway doing the first aid course for the last 2 days has been something different at work, I just hope I NEVER have to use the skill at work or home.... or ANYWHERE!

Today's weight 126.55kg, up a bit, but I had drunk LOTS of water yesterday, so I'm guessing that's why it was up a little.

Jeff

First Aid

Hi All,

Today I was doing a first aid course at work, it's 2 days, today was day 1. We covered a lot of stuff today, the major one was CPR and a bit on cut and wounds. more tomorrow. Been very interesting and very helpful, I was interested to find out I did indeed remember a lot from my last course which was about 7 years ago. I REALLY hope and pray that I never ever have to use any of the first aid skills I have, but I guess it's better to have the skills and not need them then not have the skill and need them!

Today's weight a good low 126.10kg!

That's all for now folks ;)

Jeff

Sunday again...

Hi All,

Well it was back to work for the week today, not a bad day at all, maybe a bit warm standing next to the boiler in the railway engine all day, but hey that's part of the job! it was a good days work too, a bit of track work in between trains, followed by more work on getting the 2nd engine ready to steam after it's yearly boiler check, all that and driving the normal passenger trains too!

As for the weight, both good and bad...

I have dropped back down to 126.85kg which is good, but it's bad as it's not down bellow my 126.40 from earlier in the week :( never mind I'll work hard on it again! today wasn't too bad, lots of hard work at work, also a good 30 minute walk this morning will help me out. Tomorrow I have to be very careful as all I'm doing tomorrow is class room work, yep, I have a first aid course to attend for the next two days...

Jeff

what happened to yesterday?

I missed a day in the blog, I somehow forgot about yesterday....

Anyway the weight yesterday was 126.40kg which is good....

BUT....

Today it was 127.20kg, which is very very bad! yesterday was one of "those" days were my eating was out of control again :( there was some good in the day however wife and I went for a good walk of about 1 hour and it was the most perfect day for walking, warm but not hot, blue sky etc

Today I've still been in the over eating mode, but most of it has been not to bad, eg fish with rice and veg, only bad thing today was some home made macaroni & cheese, must say it was GOOD, way better than that stuff you buy in a box and just add mike to the sauce!

Wife & I went for a walk this afternoon along part of the local beach, it was great! the beach had nobody on it apart from us and it was fine hot weather.... how hot? will put it this way... I got my first sun burn of the year in less than 20 minutes! it's not bad, just a bit of a stinging feeling around the lower bit of my neck.

Jeff

End of the week

Hi All,

Yep today's my Friday, no work tomorrow! :)

It's been a hard week's work, doing railway track work is hard on the body, but at the same time it's rewarding.... to travel over the bit of the track that you have worked on and feel the difference in the ride is great!

Today's weight 126.55kg, a small amount down which is good!

Jeff

Christmas madness already!

Hi All,

Well we are only 3 days into December and already the shops are starting to go mad with people doing their shopping! BAH-HUMBUG! Ok, so I'm not that much of a fan of Christmas, it's not Christmas it's self that I don't like, it's going over broad on food and gift's. I mean do we really have to spend HUGE amounts of money on gifts for everybody we know? and eat till we are uncomfortably full?

I much more like to spend Christmas with my family and have a smallish meal of Christmas food (e.g. turkey, ham etc) and have good gifts that will be:

A: Useful

B: NOT expensive

Having said that the wife and I have spent $300 so far on presents to ours self's! but it is something we both like and it well get used. The rest of the family is getting things that cost no more than $5, one reason for that is my Mum has laid down a rule this year that nobody in the family is to spend more than $5 on any gift, I can live with that, because I feel that Christmas is far more about spending time with loved ones then trying to out do each other with costly gifts.

Anyway I have this simple little rule about Christmas..... It's not Christmas until I hear "Snoopy's Christmas" on a local radio station, last year I made it till 24th Dec before I heard it, this year I heard it yesterday (2nd Dec) I have only one thing to say about that....

BAH-HUMBUG!

It's just WAY to early in December to be hearing that on the radio! anyway I guess I'm already in the "I hate Christmas" mode and I'll stay there into the 23rd or 24th!

Today's weight 126.75kg a very small gain which I can live with, hopeful back to going down tomorrow!

Jeff

P.S I don't really hate Christmas, just the madness leading up to it!

Tuesday again

Hi All,

Yep it's Tuesday, mid week for me, I did more track work at work today and I'd love to kill that Wacker we use! It's got a 2 stoke motor and when it runs good it's very good, but sometimes it goes crazy for no reason, today was one of them! I had it running all afternoon till I run it out of petrol, Ok, full it back up and back to using it? NO WAY! it would start and run for about 30 seconds..... then die again. I put up with this for about 30 minutes as I tried to figure out what was wrong, then after I started it for about the 10,000th time it just carried on running, I have no idea what was wrong with it and no idea way it came right, but hey it goes and that's the mian thing!

Today's weight is 126.70 Kg! WOW that's coming scream down! must be all the hard work on the track that is starting to pay off, hope I can keep it up!

Jeff

life, what is it?

Hi All,

What is life? is it the stuff that happens to us as we try to live and plan our life? looking back over my 40 years on earth so far has been interesting, what I'm doing for a job and what I had planned on doing are so far apart it's not even on the same planet! but having said that I'm not complaining because my job is so GOOD I do something that I love and I'm 1 of only a hand full of people doing it and being paid to do it!

Mind you my life isn't perfect.... if it was I'd be thin and rich, both of which I'm working on ;) I would say I've made my share of mistakes along the way, some bad, some that turned out good, but you have to make mistakes or how do you learn? and as the old saying goes.... if it does not kill you it makes you stronger! (maybe that should be smarter) I've taken some risks in life, most of them small because I'm a "safe" person, but I've also taken the odd huge risk, I'm not sure which you would put "internet dating" under, small or large, But for me and wife it has been a very rewarding risk and we are now very happy and very much in love together.

Guess what I'm trying to say is this....

In life you WELL make mistakes, you WELL take risks.....

Some well be bad, some well come out good....

But above all.......

LIFE is LIFE and it happens no matter what your plans for it are.

Anyway today's weight 127.25kg, so I hop I now have it going back down :)

Jeff