That was the week that was

Stunning flowers fill the gardens around the base of old palm trees in the war memorial park halfway along the shopping centre on High Street, in Penrith. 16 November 2009.



Jack takes "Tiger" to bed. Yes, the current "tiger" is actually a sheepskin platypus. Poor confused dog. 17 November 2009.



These hardy flowers are in numerous commercial stores' flower beds in Penrith. 18 November 2009.



Christmas decorations at the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) in the Sydney CBD. 19 November 2009.



Home customised "Bear and Chook" Christmas ornament. 20 November 2009.



Alien invasion of my bedroom. These little guys are from the "Toy Story" series of Pixar animated films, of course. The one on the mauve base is a very annoying talking night light. The other foreground alien is a bootleg battery operated toy from a bargain importer. The alien teddy is one of those collectible Japanese bears. 21 November 2009.



Jack finally meets Wishbone at Mash cafe in Glenbrook. They were surprisingly well behaved while we ate breakfast. 22 November 2009.

Revisiting Penrith's "Up 'n' Go" tree

This is Penrith's infamous "Up 'n' Go" bush, revisited - urban art that grew
over several years. I first photographed it this time last year,
but it is seemingly abandoned in more recent times.

I'd almost forgotten this bizarre objet d'art, hung with empty TetraPaks of instant breakfast drink... until a friend mentioned reading about it on my blog last November! I happened to be passing the location this afternoon, so took a new inspection. Looking a little faded...

Here it is, in all its 2008 glory:

Breakfast of (Star Trek) champions

Just on breakfast time today, a parcel turned up from a US penpal, containing two boxes of limited edition Kellogg's "Star Trek" cereal, in the shape of oaty galaxies, complete with little, multi-coloured, marshmallow insignias and planets!

Great timing!

The box art features images from the recent JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie.

And the verdict? Mmmmmmmmm. Marshmallows... (Or, as Spock would call them, "marshmelons".)


Yummy galaxy-shaped "Star Trek" cereal, with marshmallows depicting
Command yellow insignia, Science blue insignia, Engineering/Services
red insignia, planet Earth (centre) and planet Vulcan (lower left).

Up 'n' go art

I've been passing this work-of-art-in-progress now for several years. Located in the front garden of a row of industrial shopfronts on Coreen Avenue, Penrith, someone has been diligently hanging their empty "Up 'n' Go" instant breakfast drinks in the tree.

At first the tree reminded me, very much, of a bush in the yard of my cousin's house in Bargo. She discovered it full of used teabags one day, only to realise the ornamentation was due to her husband "decorating for Christmas" (Read: chucking his used teabags into the tree, for mischief, mainly).

The Penrith version of this art form features "Up 'n' Go" packets, which are threaded on wire - so there's been a great deal more planning than impromptu chucking. Simply marvelous urban art.

I took the pic on my way home from today's Pieroth wine-tasting harbour cruise. It semed like such a looooong walk... Hic!

Sunday's magic number: 94.0 - Sigh...

Junk Food Day, er Weekend

I'm going to have to do something. Saturday night was a very enjoyable pizza and wine night with friends - Jack was invited too, as there were three, small, excitable dogs looking forward to a reunion. After food, the DVD of "Sweeney Todd" played on, the four canines - all suffering Small Dog Syndrome - jockeyed for prime position on various human laps. It was quite hilarious. Luckily, the only blood spilled was on the screen.

Then this morning it was off to Mash cafe, in Glenbrook in the lower Blue Mountains, for breakfast. My friend Leonie accompanied us, although we left Jack behind. On a warm Sunday morning, it's very pleasant to eat al fresco at Mash, with Jack beside us, but winter in Glenbrook is... usually brisk. Fresh. Bloody cold.

We frittered away the rest of today, exploring the gift shops, garden centres and second hand bookstores of Glenbrook and Springwood, finishing off with a relaxing steak sandwich pub meal at "the Ori" (aka Orient Hotel). Delicious!

Let's not mention the vanilla slice for afternoon tea, eh?

Sunday's magic number: 95.8 - the diet starts anew tomorrow...

"No breakfast for you!"

I had plans for a sumptuous breakfast in a cafe in the lower Blue Mountains this morning, but the day was quite gloomy and my plans were dashed.

Having just jumped on the scales for my weekly weigh-in, I'm so depressed I wanna just eat everything the fridge, and then go polish off some Krispy Kreme donuts.

Admittedly, it's been too rainy to get much walking in this week, although I've certainly been out there in it. The only way I'm feeling a little more positive about the situation is that, this time last year, I'd avoided the scales altogether, because I knew I'd managed to reverse a whole previous year's worth of dieting in just a few months of post-Christmas mystery.

As I've said before, I don't feel like I'm over-eating, or having too many treats, and I do an incredible amount of brisk walking. I do not want to have to go to a gym, and my body seems to be saying it likes being the size it is. It's been about eighteen months of quite resisted meal choices now - I still get so envious on a Thursday night when I pass all those glassed-walled CBD restaurants and cafes with my banana skim milk smoothie, and see people seemingly eating a normal meal. Or when I go to a movie and I'm the only person not nursing a huge bucket of hot, buttered popcorn.

Sunday's not so magic number: 95.6 - Sob.