Nice hat!

The sequel to JJ Abrams' 2009 "Star Trek" movie, preparing to wrap principal photography in Los Angeles?

Cruelty to colourblind teacher-librarians!

Part of Term 2's pupil-free day was learning to play Speedminton. I could barely see the orange colour of the so-called "Fun Speeder" (shuttlecock), and it was even worse when it was on the grass!

Fat free forever - again (sigh!)

Tee hee. Nine kilograms in fifteen weeks. Not the kind of numbers they get in "The Biggest Loser", so woulda been voted off by now, but slow, steady progress.

This is my third - no, fourth - serious go at the diet plan known as "Fat Free Forever" (book by Diane Barker, now Wilson). I have a success letter in the second edition of her book. I sometimes joke that I should write my own version of this book, called "Fat Free for Five Years", since that's about how long it takes to fall off the wagon - and you always end up putting on even more weight that has to come off.

Of course, it also gets worse with age as your metabolism keeps slowing down. First time on this diet plan (early 1990s) I went from 90 kg to 78 kg from one Christmas till the Easter, and it was so easy. Next two times, in about 2005 and 2007, I went from over 101 kg down to about 82 kg. This time I've had to start from a record-high of 105 kg. I really can't afford for there to be a "next time". This time has to be the one that holds. No more "yo-yo" dieting.

The key to Diane's diet is to treat your body like a car. You never wait till your car runs out of fuel, you keep it topped up. So... huge, sensible breakfast, sensible morning tea, medium-sized sensible lunch, sensible afternoon tea, small sensible dinner. No starchy carbohydrates (bread, cereal, pasta, potato, rice) after 3pm in the afternoon. Walking every day. Celebrate with a Junk Food Day meal once a week and, in fact, your body loses weight after that junk food because you've shocked it and your faster metabolism works extra hard to get rid of what you just put in!

If you think about it, it's exactly how we ate as skinny kids in the 1960s. If we were really, really good we got takeaway fish & chips on a Friday night, or a rare dessert on a Sunday after the baked dinner, or a bag of sweets when grandma visited. There were only about six Kentucky Fried Chicken stores (now KFC to hide the "Fried" bit) and one McDonald's to cause us to nag for junk food. Sigh. Life used to be soooo easy.

What's cookin'?

Any idea what's bubbling away on my cooktop? I'm dyeing two customised puppets!


And this becomes...


... this!

Yes, they are a pair of customized puppets, now dried in the washing machine spin-drier. The completed bat has wings cut from brown felt and the new eyes are flat beads in a pink plastic, Supaglued over the original black giraffe eyes. 50 cents for a packet containing lots (of future replacement eyes?) I love bargain shops!

The panther's eyes are some teardrop-shaped yellow plastic "jewels", originally bought for a different project. The only reason for turning a tiger into a panther was to give the bat a dunking buddy, and use up the leftover dye.


These two new additions (above) look rather sedate after the cooking pot episode!