Stubbornness

Scores on the doors are quietly pleasing. Despite being less than perfect - fish & chips, pints at football, red wine last night - I have also been otherwise abstemious and worked on keeping active. No snacks, modest sensible meals, walks, extra walks, a run. This seems to have paid off on the scales in that I've seen a modest 2lb drop to 17.7.6 over the last 3 days.

I faced another test this morning when my breakfast options were limited and the snow haf me stuck at home for an hour or so. The prospect of a bacon and egg butty arose.....but was dashed. I found an old chocolate milkshake pack and had that instead. Hopefully it will counteract the minor excesses and keep me on the straight and narrow.

(I was not tempted to make the shakes a permanent thing BTW - maybe just an occasional expedient?)

Do you want some sunny pics from Oz?? Tough, you're getting them anyway!!

Here are a few from the stunningly beautiful Rottnest Island 40 minutes from Fremantle/Perth (the name certainly does not do it justice!)

We hired bikes to cycle round the island in case you're wondering about the headgear.

We went to Oz with Rich's dad and stepmum, Gordon and Carolyn and had a marvellous time together.

I hired snorkelling gear too which was a brilliant idea!

A quokka. A bit like a cross between a friendly rat and a kangaroo. They used to live all over Western Australia but cats have wiped them out apart from on a few remote islands. There are loads (or "heaps" as the Aussies would say) of them on Rottnest and they're very cute lolloping about.

PS. I typed the post up earlier today but was waiting to upload the pics so now I can give you the GOOD news about MintyMoo! The vet said that, to his big surprise, the results have revealed no malignancy in the samples he sent off. So not cancer. Wooo hooo!!

She still needs a serious operation to remove the damaged section of her intestines and is at risk of serious infection over the next week or so but he's pleased with how she's recovering and there's no sign of infection at present. He's going to arrange the op with a specialist vetinerary surgeon as soon as the surgeon thinks is advisable. He wants it to be asap to minimise the rupture risk but who knows?

Assuming the op goes well, there should be no reason why she shouldn't fully recover and live her full years.

What a blessing. I'm almost more teary at the good news than the bad. Your finger and paw crossing and thoughts and prayers were AWESOME!! Thank you!!