Kiwimeat’s Kitchen

Well doesn’t time fly by?!

First an update on the karate/exercise/losing weight front…..and it’s good news!
Last Saturday, Ben & I successfully graded to 8th Kyu (which is a Blue Belt in Seido Juku) and Jane graded to 6th Kyu (Green Belt). Add to this that I’ve lost 10Kg since July and I feel pretty proud of our achievements.

Second, since late August we’ve been very busy with construction of a swimming pool in our back yard. The pool is complete, but the retaining wall, final pool fencing and paving remain to be done. The pool is 8m x 4m and solar heated and getting constant use at the moment. It was also quite a bit more expensive than the original budget.

Work hasn’t been quite as positive as due to the current global financial farce, the headless chickens are ruling the roost and Rio Tinto (where I’ve been since March 2007) is laying off 14,000 (or 8% of it’s workforce) including a very large number of contractors (potentially including me). My contract has been renewed but with a reduced notice period so we’ll wait and see. Ohh and the best bit is that they announced it a couple of weeks ago but won’t tell the individuals affected until next year. 

Confession time - I’ve rarely been slim and fit since University (more than 2 decades ago) and since last Christmas I’ve managed to stealthily aquire an additional 10kg taking me well into a BMI index of 30+. Given that I’m not an All Black and composed of solid muscle and mana, this is bad news.

A health check with the doctor found nothing alarmingly wrong except for a number indicators of future health issues and increased risk of bad things like strokes and diabeties.

So what to do? Lose weight and excercise - especially the later.

Well, we’ve taken up Karate as a family … well minus Holly who only lasted one lesson. For the rest of us (Jane, Ben & I) we now have our karategi (Jane simply got her old one out as she’s done it before) and our bagdes are ready to be sewn on (we’ve joined Seido Karate as it’s Brisbane dojo is just 4 blocks from our home).

And Osu!?  It is pronounced “OSS!”, with a long “O”. It is used in Seido classes in place of Ha (yes) and is usually uttered many, many times by all karateka (students).
It is used as a word of many meanings, expressing the willingness to strive against all odds, to persevere on the road to physical, mental, and spiritual strength, an expression of respect of ones seniors and responsibility to ones juniors.

After 3 weeks, I’m still reaquainting myself with long lost muscles and learning the basics but I am enjoying it and hope that we will perservere. Osu! 

A third of the year just flew by…….

So what happened?

I got busy at work, busy at home, and celebrated our 19th Wedding Anniversary with a weekend in Sydney where we did the Harbour Bridge Climb. For anniversary presents (other than leaving the kids behind with their Nana - thanks Mum!) my wife got a huge jigsaw and I got a book entitled “Thrill Power Overload - Thirty Years of 2000AD“. Splundig Vur Thrigg as Tharg would say. 
Ohh and the 10 free redemption movies from Toshiba finally turned up more than 4 months after I claimed them and they were a pile of poo like Blades of Glory and Nacho Libre.

Got myself a shining new Dell 2707WFP screen (very impressive) this week for $800, and have been gradually swapping out the storage drives in my PC and the HTPC for 1 Gigabyte Western Digital Green Power drives.

It’s time for a new laptop for me as my old T41p used by my daughter has expired (fan and a number of other parts have failed) so I’m donating my T60 15″ (non widescreen) to her and looking for a new laptop for myself (I am still able to salary sacrifice as it is for business purporses). At the very moment I’m waiting for the 14 July to roll-in when the new Intel chipset are released along with the new models from the vendors. In the running is either a T400 (Lenovo are changing the naming scheme on Thinkpads) or possibly an X300.

Damn, a whole month without posting.

Work was very busy (we had our annual DR test) and now we’re all in the vortex that is Pre-Christmas. The annual endurance test of shopping (not to mention trying to find a parking space before the shopping), present lists, cards, wrapping, postage (a big ticket item for us due to the number of relatives in the UK) with a bit of socialising thrown in. We’ve got my daughter’s Primary School Graduation, Work Social Club Xmas visit to Wet N’ Wild Water World, my new nephew’s naming day, plus a couple of work events.

No.1 Daughter has decided upon an Apple Ipod Classic for her main, combined Xmas & Birthday present with anything else as cold, hard cash. Of course in addition to the purchase cost is the almost mandatory accessorisation that needs to accompany it (dock, case, radio option). No 1. Son has presented a list almost exclusively computer games for PS2, Nintendo DS Lite & PC.

My wife’s list give me plenty of options to fulfill. My list is fairly scant but mainly books with few movies and the last two seasons of West Wing that I don’t have (S6 & S7).

Early Xmas gift is likely to include a Japanese PS3 for Region A Blu-Ray playback and a couple of Blu-Ray movies.

Anyway good luck to all those about to enter the Xmas vortex and hopefully emerge on the other side.

Thanks to Dugie for the hosting. I’ll now actually have to get cracking on the content.