…nearly.

I’m still kind of laid low with this virus and it’s driving me nuts. I go out and do something one day, and then spend half the next day in bed. Yesterday I excelled myself, making 2 batches of patty cakes for Possum’s birthday party. I needed a nap afterwards. Oh well.

The good news is that all is going well with the gastric band. I saw the nurse on Wednesday and she was delighted with my weightloss so far. I admitted that I hadn’t been all that, um, thorough with sticking to the liquid diet. Partly because I’d been given conflicting information (one person said two weeks and one said one to two weeks). I was kind of worried that I might have been completely sabotaging myself, but the main thing is NO VOMITING and I sure haven’t done any of that.

It’s been a relief to eat some real food, even if it is mush. I was so hungry the other day, I bought some curry at a food court. Scraped the gravy off and ate it, but chucked the chunks of meat away. Felt like I was committing a crime (hey, if the cow had to die, I should at least eat it) but I didn’t.

Beloved and I went for a walk in the forest on Saturday. It turned out longer than it should have been (I was trusting to Beloved’s uncanny sense of direction, but it let us down.) Meant I was late for my writing group, but they forgave me. And it was worth it.

Anngirl, I don’t know if you have the same little pictures above your “post” box where you write your blogs, but mine is set to “visual” and I get a row of image boxes. If I click on the one that sort of looks like a tree (between the broken link and the thing that looks like a page cut in half) it pops up a dialogue box for inserting pictures. With this new version of 3fc I have to first put my pictues on a photo-sharing website, and I’ve been using flickr. I just insert the url of the picture and it appears in the blog. Hope this helps with your photo attempts.

I sounded a bit like a steam train going up some of the hills in the forest, I partly blame the virus and partly blame the anaesthetic. I have this theory that it takes me 6 weeks to feel totally better after an anaesthetic. I’ll know if it’s true in about 4 weeks

It’s been a real relief to get back to eating a bit of real (if mushy) food. We went to an Indian restaurant for Possum’s birthday on Tuesday and I was having curry. Yum. It’s been great to have a bit of flavour to break through the weight of this virus and great to have a bit of texture. I had a nibble of garlic naan, but less than half a piece and I was happy to stop eating when I felt full and leave some butter chicken on my plate. I was okay with that because it was enough. I know the hardest part of this is going to be overcoming my training as a goodie two shoes to always clean my plate.

Most of the wound sites are clean now and look like nothing more than heavy duty scratches. One isn’t doing so well, though. I noticed the other day that there’s a bit of a stitch sticking out of it. It’s clear, sort of like fishing line. The nurse said it was a dissolving stitch and it would go away, but it’s leaking a little bit. Not infected, just a bit of clear ichor coming out of it since yesterday. I guess it will go away soon. It’s the one on my left side, where I picture my stomach and the actual band to be located.

I can feel Doris, the port, under my skin. It’s in the middle of my chest, just below bra line.

I walk around the shops now and I look at the nice clothes. I’m not tempted to buy. Not tempted to even try them on because I know in a while I’ll be fitting much, much smaller sizes and it’s so exciting to think about.

I’ve had a couple of other exciting things happen to me this week, actually. They’re about my writing. I submitted the first 1000 words of a children’s book I’ve written to a competition where the shortlisted entries get to be seen by publishers. And mine got shortlisted! I was so excited when I heard that. Then the next day, Tuesday, while I was out with the family celebrating Poss’s birthday, I got another call. This one was from a group called Clarion South. Every second year they run a scifi/fantasy/specfi workshop in Queensland. The workshop goes for 6 weeks and only 12 people get to go. I had submitted an entry to the workshop, not really expecting to be accepted…and I got accepted!

The funny thing about this is that I submitted to it when I just started doing this blog and had just started on the Gabriel Method. Every morning as I did my 10 minutes, I also pictured myself at Queensland Uni (which is where it’s held, with participants living in student digs). I pictured myself there, thin, being active, making use of the uni facilities: gym, pool etc every morning, and feeling great about my fitness.

And now it’s coming true! I’ll miss Beloved like hell, but he’s decided he’s going to do a major ride. He’s going to ride up the coast, visit Radio Boy for a few days, have the weekend with me, keep going right up the coat on An Adventure, and then have the next weekend with me, and then back home again. So it’s going to be fun for him, too. Soooooo excited. Oh, and I’m getting a laptop, too. So I’ll find some way to keep in touch.

Oh, this is what else Beloved and I saw on our walk. It’s a lyrebird. He wasn’t displaying or anything, just having a bit of a scratch and a peck, like a chook. Unfortunately it’s not great photo, but at least I, unlike Beloved, brought my camera.

Time to go now. Poss and I are going to buy some soft drinks and chippies for her party tonight and I have to put icing on the cupcakes. My taste of cupcake was just licking the bowl yesterday, and I guess I’ll have a lick of icing today. Beloved and I are going to see a movie tonight while Poss entertains her buddies. I guess it’s best this way. I’m not up to solid food yet, and I’d be sorely tempted by pizza.