Amazing Race Monday

Monday 23 July 2012 - The Amazing Race is my current favourite show. I love seeing the places they travel to, and even though the most annoying team has been winning each leg for about 4 episodes now, I am still loving it - and still hoping they will be eventually beaten, by ANY of the other teams, I don't care which!
I have just finished watching the first 2 seasons of The Borgias and Season 5 of Mad Men. The Borgias is pretty good, lots of cliffhanger endings that ensured I watched it all within about 2 weeks... The most recent season of Mad Men is the best I have seen, and after 2 sick days last week, I had it all over within a week too. Now Amazing Race is off till 13 August, probably due to the Olympics, even though Channel 7 is not the "Olympics Station", so boo.

Some of my all-time favourite TV series that come to mind, would be Game Of Thrones, The Wire, This Life (a sparkling UK gem), The Secret Life Of Us, Arrested Development, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Entourage. The Young Ones, Modern Family and Friends...

And Pride & Prejudice...

So, as I don't have much to watch now, I guess it's lucky that Yoga starts again tomorrow night. That takes care of Tuesday nights. I also like the Everton Park Zumba classes, so maybe I could try to get back to doing that on Mondays and Thursdays... I went to the free/$2 class at New Farm Park on Saturday morning, and really enjoyed it. Especially since a lovely tall, lean dancer-boy showed up for the class - with his girlfirend - and the instructor liked his moves so much, she got him up the front with her, so we all got to check him out. Made it just a tad more interesting, and he just moved so beautifully, he really was lovely to watch!

I went to the doctor last week, as I wanted to start taking liver detox tablets to see if I can help my poor liver, that still works hard for me even though I treat it pretty badly.... anyway, the directions say to check with a doctor first, hence the visit. I love my doctor, he is so "kindly" and reassuring all the time, and knows what a worrier/hypochondriac I am and tries to set my mind at rest. This time he told me I need to decrease animal fats in my diet, get more active and try to lose weight, particularly around the abdomen, the "danger zone" for  women, as I was already aware... so, time to be good now, diet-wise and exercise-wise.

So on that note - on Sunday, five of us headed to Chocolate High Tea at the Stamford Plaza! I tried to be good, but it was a big buffet of lovely slices, cakes, scones, sandwiches, tea and coffee galore. A nice, civilised afternoon with the girls.

On Saturday, I went to my cousins' place to watch Collingwood cop an absolute hiding from Hawthorn (I also call them The Great Unwashed - seriously, at least half the team look like they need a shower and definitely a shave). Anyway, Hawthorn played like freaks, they just did nothing wrong, and deserved the win. Dammit. Still love my Magpies, but jeez I don't know what their problem was that day.

Pretty huh?!

The previous weekend, I headed home to Ballina on the rainy night of Friday 13th, to see Mum & Dad before they headed off to Sydney, then onto their luxury cruise ship for a ... luxury cruise. Soon I will start counting down to my trip with Kim to France and Spain. Only about 2 & 1/2 months to go now, but it's still a bit far away.

I am currently reading a fantastic book called The Happiness Trap - Stop Struggling, Start Living. It is about  dealing with negative thoughts and feelings, rather than trying to turn them around or avoiding them. A life of 100% happiness is impossible to achieve, so instead, the focus is on "creating a rich and meaningful life", including the full range of feelings and emotions. I find it fascinating, and completely different to the usual self-help and motivational books I've seen. Time will tell.